Table 1.
Baseline participant characteristics
| Characteristic | Included participants a (n = 1116) | Excluded participants (n = 164) | P value b |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age, median (IQR), years | 81.9 (75.5–86.9) | 80.5 (74.7–86.2) | 0.123 |
| Gender, n (%) | |||
| Women | 652 (58.4) | 93 (56.7) | 0.673 |
| Men | 464 (41.6) | 71 (43.3) | |
| Hospital stay, median (IQR), days | 7 (3–14) | 7 (3–13) | 0.595 |
| Number of Charlson Index comorbidities (%) | |||
| 0–1 | 541 (48.5) | 88 (53.7) | |
| ≥2 | 575 (51.5) | 76 (46.3) | 0.242 |
| Selected comorbidities, n (%) | |||
| Hypertension | 611 (54.7) | 86 (52.4) | 0.615 |
| CLD | 326 (29.2) | 56 (34.1) | 0.202 |
| Atrial fibrillation | 279 (25.0) | 43 (26.2) | 0.773 |
| Diabetes | 269 (24.1) | 31 (18.9) | 0.167 |
| IHD | 224 (20.1) | 38 (23.2) | 0.352 |
| CKD | 153 (13.7) | 21 (12.8) | 0.808 |
| CCF | 150 (13.4) | 20 (12.2) | 0.713 |
| Depression | 95 (8.5) | 12 (7.3) | 0.762 |
| Dementia | 51 (4.6) | 6 (3.7) | 0.839 |
| Charlson index, median (IQR) | 2 (1–3) | 1 (1–3) | 0.087 |
| Barthel score, median (IQR) | 17 (13–20) | 18 (14–20) | 0.035 |
| Number of discharge medicines, median (IQR) | 9 (7–12) | 9 (6–12) | 0.393 |
| Multicompartment compliance aid, n (%) | 371 (33.2) | 43 (26.2) | 0.074 |
| Discharge to care home, n (%) | 30 (2.7) | 8 (4.9) | 0.136 |
| Living alone after discharge, n (%) | 551 (49.4) | 80 (48.8) | >0.999 |
CCF, congestive cardiac failure; CLD, chronic lung disease; CKD, chronic kidney disease; IHD, ischaemic heart disease; IQR, interquartile range
a
Ten participants were included following readmission which was not associated with medication‐related harm, for whom general practitioner records were not available and were uncontactable at 8 weeks (median follow‐up 29 days after recruitment)
b
Mann–Whitney U test for continuous variables and Fisher's exact test for categorical variables