Table 2.
Descriptive Results of Baseline Patient Characteristics by Rurality
| Variables | All Patients (N=414) |
Urban (N=350) |
Rural (N=64) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||
| N(%) or Mean(SD) |
N(%) or Mean(SD) |
N(%) or Mean(SD) |
|
| Geriatric Assessment impairment | |||
| Number of impairments (1-8)‡ | 4.5 (1.5) | 4.6 (1.5) | 4.1 (1.6) |
| Polypharmacy | 350 (84.5%) | 299 (85.4%) | 51 (79.7%) |
| Cognition | 144 (34.8%) | 125 (35.7%) | 19 (29.7%) |
| Nutrition‡ | 259 (62.6%) | 226 (64.6%) | 33 (51.6%) |
| Physical performance | 389 (94.0%) | 331 (94.6%) | 58 (90.6%) |
| Functional status | 254 (61.4%) | 221 (63.1%) | 33 (51.6%) |
| Comorbidity | 263 (63.5%) | 224 (64.0%) | 39 (60.9%) |
| Psychological status | 112 (27.1%) | 94 (26.9%) | 18 (28.1%) |
| Social support | 91 (22.0%) | 77 (22.0%) | 14 (21.9%) |
| Cancer type + | |||
| Gastrointestinal | 103 (24.9%) | 84 (24.0%) | 19 (29.7%) |
| Lung | 109 (26.3%) | 94 (26.9%) | 15 (23.4%) |
| Other | 201 (48.6%) | 171 (48.9%) | 30 (46.9%) |
| Cancer stage+ | |||
| Stage III | 35 (8.5%) | 30 (8.6%) | 5 (7.8%) |
| Stage IV | 365 (88.2%) | 309 (88.3%) | 56 (87.5%) |
| other | 13 (3.1%) | 10 (2.9%) | 3 (4.7%) |
| Chemotherapy + | 282 (68.1%) | 235 (67.1%) | 47 (73.4%) |
Note: SD=standard deviation;
+
One patient did not provide clinical information.
‡
P ≤ 0.05 when comparing differences between urban and rural caregivers using t-tests for continuous variables, and Chi-square tests for binary variables;