Table 3. Univariate analysis of clinical predictors of significant pathology in patients with the primary complaint rectal bleeding (n = 528).

Characteristic	Significant pathology		P value
	Yes	No
Demographics
Age, years	50.9	49.03	0.336
Male, %	25.2	74.8	0.032 1
Duration of bleed, %			0.054
Up to 1 week	17.4	82.6
> 1 week up to 1 month	28.6	71.4
> 1 month up to 6 months	23.9	76.1
> 6 months up to 1 year	28.3	71.7
> 1 year	12.8	87.2
Quality of bleeding, %			0.580
On tissue paper only	17.0	83.0
Dripping in bowl	21.6	78.4
Coating the stool	22.6	77.4
Mixed with stool	26.1	73.9
Quality of bowel preparation, %			0.772
Poor/incomplete	20.3	79.7
Moderate	23.8	76.2
Satisfactory/complete	20.6	79.4
FS completion, %			0.233
Yes	21.6	78.4
No	10.7	89.3
Need for follow-up, %			N/A
Yes	47.7	52.3
No	14.2	85.8
Need for additional tests, %			N/A
Yes	50.4	49.6
No	13.0	87.0

FS, flexible sigmoidoscopy

¹ P  < 0.05