TABLE A1. Definitions of healthcare utilization variables.

		Analysis in which variable was included
Variable	Definition	Descriptive	Prediction
No. of hospital admissions	The number of times a patient was admitted to hospital during episode	√	√
No. of days in hospital	Total number of days a patient spent in hospitals during episode	√
No. of SCU admissionsa	The number of times a patient was admitted to SCUs during hospital stays in the episode	√
No. of days in SCUsa	Total number of days a patient spent in SCUs during hospital admissions in the episode	√
No. of ED visits	The number of times a patient visited EDs during episode	√	√
No. of days in ED	Total number of days a patient spent in EDs during episode	√
No. of FP visits	The number of times a patient visited FPs during episode	√	√
No. of specialist visits	The number of times a patient visited specialist physicians during episode	√	√
No. of different drugs	The number of different types of out-patient drugs dispensed during the episode	√	√
No. of days in episode	The total number of days the episode covered, starting from the first date of the episode to the last date	√

^aNotes: These variables were defined for only those who had hospital admission. √ = variable was included in the specified analysis; SCU, special care units; ED, emergency department; FP, family practitioner.