Table 1.

Patient demographics by referral reason from general practitioner referral letter

Referral reason	Number of patients (% patients with referral reason)	Number of women (% women in referral group)	Mean age (±SD) years
Primary contact
Total patients	399 (100)	271 (67.9)	32.0 (8.6)
Diarrhoea	85 (21.0)	60 (70.6)	31.2 (8.4)
Constipation	32 (7.8)	31 (96.9)*	30.8 (7.5)
Altered bowel habits	64 (16)	44 (68.8)	33.7 (8.6)
Abdominal pain	186 (47.4)	143 (76.9)*	30.5 (8.3)*
Dyspepsia/heartburn  /reflux	86 (21.6)	41 (47.7)*	34.3 (8.7)*
Bloating	67 (16.8)	52 (77.6)	32.4 (8.5)
Nausea	27 (6.8)	26 (96.3)*	29.1 (8.2)

Some patients were referred with more than one condition. Bloating and nausea are non–Clinical Prioritisation Criteria referral conditions.

*Significant differences between gender or mean age of patients with a given referral reason and those without, with p value <0.01.