Table 1.

Study sample with baseline characteristics of selected GPs with an episode of discontinuity in an earlier stable practice and their list patients (2007–2017)

	N	%
GP characteristics*
Total	2560	100
GP sex
Female	1084	42
Male	1476	58
GP age at discontinuity
<30	22	1
30–39	1010	39
40–49	548	21
50–59	431	17
60+	549	21
GP in group practice	2244	88
GP activity before discontinuity
Registered list size—mean number of patients (range)	1126	500–2483
Mean no of ordinary patient consultations during 12 months before discontinuity (range)	2657	1000–10 530
GP activity 12 months after discontinuity
Registered with same list ID as before	1586	62
Registered with same list ID as before and active (>10 consultations)	1112	43
Registered with same list ID as before and normal activity (number of consultations≥75% compared with 12 months before discontinuity)	813	32
Patient episode characteristics*
Patient episodes†	2 862 717	100
Sex
Female	1 441 798	50.4
Male	1 420 919	49.6
Age groups
0–18	614 576	21.5
19–44	1 026 774	35.9
46–64	729 031	25.5
65–79	339 833	11.9
80+	152 503	5.3
Educational level‡
Primary	680 098	27.8
Secondary	1 014 323	41.5 %
Tertiary	752 697	30.8 %
Geography§
Municipality <2000 inhabitants	55 576	2 (of total)
10 most populated municipalities	892 857	31 (of total)

Monthly health service contact (age groups, % with at least one)	Regular GP	Out-of-hours	Acute admission	ACSC admission
0–18	9.9	2.0	0.3	0.07
19–44	16.0	1.5	0.7	0.04
46–64	19.4	1.1	0.7	0.11
65–79	26.3	1.2	1.5	0.34
80+	30.3	1.8	3.3	0.85

*Patient and GP characteristics were identified 12 months before the identified discontinuity, unless otherwise stated.

†Incidents of discontinuity of care. Some patient could experience several episodes of discontinuity during our observation time, and hence be counted more than once.

‡Educational level measured in 2016.

§Municipality in which the patient’s GP was registered. Municipality size per 2. quarter of 2019.

ACSC, ambulatory care sensitive conditions; GP, general practitioner.