Table 3.
Patient characteristics in each department
| Median (IQR) | MOP, n=50 | AMU, n=50 | T&O, n=50 | Adult medicine, n=51 | P values |
| Age | 85 (82–89) | 81 (75–85) | 80 (76–86) | 74 (71–78) | <0.001 |
| Gender, n (%) | <0.001 | ||||
| Male | 50 (100) | 19 (38) | 15 (30) | 37 (73) | |
| Female | 0 (0) | 31 (62) | 35 (70) | 14 (28) | |
| Home situation, n (%) | |||||
| Married | 28 (56) | 19 (38) | 19 (38) | 34 (67) | 0.005 |
| Living alone | 22 (44) | 31 (62) | 31 (62) | 17 (33) | |
| Care home | 2 (4) | 0 | 3 (6) | 0 | 0.295 |
| Personal care help | 16 (32) | 16 (32) | 7 (14) | 5 (10) | 0.004 |
| Comorbidities | 7 (5–8) | 6 (4–8) | 4 (3–6) | 5 (4–7) | <0.001 |
| Medications | 9 (7–12) | 7 (6–10) | 8 (5–12) | 9 (6–11) | 0.156 |
| MMSE* | 26 (22–28) | 28 (25–29) | 28 (27–29) | 29 (27–30) | <0.001 |
| Barthel | 90 (78–98) | 92 (81–100) | 70 (41–86) | 90 (78–100) | <0.001 |
| Body mass index† | 24.3 (22.0–27.1) | 26.9 (23.0–30.3) | 25.6 (21.9–28.4) | 25.4 (22.5–29.1) | 0.131 |
| MUST† low risk, n (%) | 38 (76) | 40 (82) | 43 (86) | 40 (78) | 0.820 |
| SNAQ‡ | 15 (12.5–16) | 13 (12–15) | 14 (12–15) | 14 (912–15) | 0.227 |
P value calculated using Kruskal-Wallis test except for gender, home situation and MUST calculated using Χ2 test.
*n=49 for T& O.
†n=49 for AMU.
‡n=49 for MOP.
AMU, acute medical unit; MMSE, Mini Mental State Examination; MOP, medicine for older people; MUST, Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool; SNAQ, Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire; T&O, trauma and orthopaedics.