Table 2.

Participant characteristics

Characteristic	Consumer/carera (n = 14)	Professionalb (n = 14)	All (n = 28)
Age (years, mean ± SD, range)	56 ± 14 (37 to 85)	44 ± 11 (30 to 61)	51 ± 14 (30 to 85)
Gender (female; n, % of total)	11 (79)	13 (93)	24 (86)
Participant ‘perspective’c (n)
Consumer representative	11		11
Carer representative	4		4
Health professional
Doctor	1	1	2
Allied health professional	1	2	3
Nurse		2	2
Health service manager (non-clinical role)
Acute/hospital setting		4	4
Community health setting		1	1
Health charity/not-for-profit organisation	1	2	3
Policy-maker (government department or agency)		4	4
Researcher		1	1
Research funder		1	1
Highest education level (n, % of total)
Secondary school	3 (21)	0 (0)	3 (11)
Occupational certificate or diploma	1 (7)	0 (0)	1 (4)
University bachelor’s degree	3 (22)	5 (36)	8 (29)
University post-graduate degree	7 (50)	9 (64)	16 (57)
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (n, % of total)	0 (0)	1 (7)	1 (4)
Non-English-speaking background (n, % of total)	1 (7)	2 (14)	3 (11)
Area of residence (n, % of total)
Metropolitan	12 (86)	11 (79)	23 (82)
Regional	2 (14)	3 (21)	5 (18)

^aIncluded participants who identified as a consumer or carer representative. Three participants were coded to this category as they were primarily recruited for their consumer roles, but also worked as health professionals/health peak body staff

^bIncluded participants who identified as a health professional, health service manager, health peak body or not-for-profit organisation employee, policy-maker, researcher or research funder

^cSeveral participants in both stakeholder groups nominated more than one ‘perspective’. As such, the total number of participants across ‘perspectives’ is greater than the total number of participants in each stakeholder group