. 2021 Apr 20;71(706):e381–e390. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2020.0883

Table 2.

Univariable and multivariable associations with high treatment burden (versus non-high treatment burden)

Characteristic^a		Univariable			Multivariable^b

		OR	95% CI	P-value	OR	95% CI	P-value
Age category in years (vs. 55–64)	65–74	0.60	0.36 to 1.01	0.010	0.82	0.44 to 1.56	0.268
	75–84	0.39	0.23 to 0.68		0.55	0.28 to 1.07
	≥85	0.56	0.30 to 1.06		0.64	0.27 to 1.48

Sex (vs. male)	Female	1.45	1.01 to 2.08	0.046	1.40	0.91 to 2.18	0.130

Marital status (vs. married)^c	Single	1.52	0.64 to 3.63	0.348	1.32	0.49 to 3.57	0.579
	Divorced^d	1.86	1.10 to 3.13	0.020	1.66	0.88 to 3.11	0.117
	Widowed	1.45	0.94 to 2.23	0.090	1.37	0.76 to 2.47	0.298

Living situation (vs. cohabiting)	Lives alone	1.15	0.79 to 1.68	0.461	—

Home ownership (vs. home owner)	Non-home owner	2.32	1.56 to 3.43	<0.001	1.34	0.82 to 2.19	0.239

Employment status (vs. employed)	Unemployed	1.98	0.70 to 5.61	0.198	—
	Retired	0.71	0.39 to 1.31	0.272
	Other	0.77	0.23 to 2.63	0.677

Smoking (vs. never smoked)	Ex-smoker	0.88	0.61 to 1.26	0.478	—
Smoking (vs. never smoked)	Current smoker	1.25	0.59 to 2.67	0.558

Number of long-term conditions (vs. 0 or 1 condition)	2	1.25	0.56 to 2.79	<0.001	1.06	0.44 to 2.54	0.008
	3	2.41	1.13 to 5.11		1.91	0.83 to 4.39
	4	2.42	1.08 to 5.42		1.21	0.50 to 3.00
	5	6.25	2.70 to 14.47		2.98	1.13 to 7.84
	≥6	8.78	3.43 to 22.52		4.38	1.42 to 13.53

Medications prescribed (number on repeat) (vs.<7 medications)	≥7	2.66	1.84 to 3.86	<0.001	1.62	1.03 to 2.55	0.038

Health literacy (vs. not limited)	Limited	4.92	3.29 to 7.36	<0.001	3.64	2.24 to 5.92	<0.001

Financial difficulty with health care (vs. not difficult or n/a)	Some difficulty	5.18	3.55 to 7.54	<0.001	3.94	2.56 to 6.07	<0.001

Travel time to hospital (vs. ≤1 hour)	>1 hour	2.24	1.22 to 4.11	0.009	—

Travel time to GP (vs. ≤10 minutes)	>10 minutes	1.31	0.91 to 1.89	0.140	—

Outpatient appointments in the last 6 months (vs. 0–2)	≥3	2.57	1.71 to 3.86	<0.001	—

GP appointments in the last 6 months (vs. 0–2)	≥3	3.14	2.12 to 4.64	<0.001	—

All characteristics are self-reported.

Adjusting for age, sex, marital status, home ownership, number of long-term conditions, number of prescribed regular medications, health literacy, and financial difficulty.

Married is used to refer to the category ‘Married or in a civil partnership’.

Divorced is used to refer to the category ‘Divorced or dissolved civil partnership’. CI = confidence interval. n/a = not applicable. OR = odds ratio (for high treatment burden).