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. 2021 Sep 28;21:1022. doi: 10.1186/s12913-021-07045-4

Table 2.

Predisposing characteristics, enabling factors and need variables distribution of total sample and clusters

Determinants Totala
n (%)
978 (100)
HighUsers
n (%)
343 (35.07)
GPUsers
n (%)
272 (27.80)
LowUsers
n (%)
363 (37.11)
p-value
Predisposing Age 65.34 ± 11.30 65.18 ± 10.51 66.47 ± 10.35 64.74 ± 12.02 0.081b
Female sex 714 (73) 259 (75.5) 209 (76.8) 246 (67.8) 0.017c
Geographic Location
 North 255 (29.3) 105 (34.0) 60 (28.6) 81 (25.2) < 0.001 c
 Centre 243 (27.9) 85 (27.2) 87 (36.1) 72 (22.4)
 Islands 127 (14.6) 32 (10.4) 21 (8.7) 74 (23.1)
 South 84 (9.6) 29 (9.4) 26 (10.8) 29 (9.0)
 Lisbon 162 (18.6) 59 (19.1) 38 (15.8) 65 (20.2)
Married or consensual union 619 (63.3) 222 (64.7) 165 (60.7) 232 (63.9) 0.556 c
Enabling Years of Education 4.96 ± 3.32 5.05 ± 3.36 4.36 ± 3.18 5.32 ± 3.32 < 0.001b
 < 4 years of Education 247 (25.3) 79 (23.1) 98 (36.0) 70 (19.3) < 0.001c
Employment status 0.006 c
 Employed (part-time OR full-time) 145 (16.6) 42 (13.5) 31 (12.9) 72 (22.9)
 Retired 634 (72.4) 222 (71.4) 185 (76.7) 228 (70.2)
 Unemployed 68 (7.8) 31 (10.0) 18 (7.5) 19 (5.8)
 Temporarily disabled 17 (1.9) 11 (3.5) 4 (1.7) 2 (0.6)
 Othersd 12 (1.4) 5 (1.6) 3 (1.3) 4 (1.2)
NHS as only health system 763 (78.0) 236 (74.9) 230 (79.3) 297 (79.6) 0.003c
Need Physical function (HAQ) 0.76 ± 0.69 0.88 ± 0.66 0.77 ± 0.67 0.47 ± 0.59 < 0.001b
HRQoL (EQ-5D-3L) 0.62 ± 0.27 0.57 ± 0.27 0.61 ± 0.26 0.73 ± 0.25 < 0.001b
BMI (kg/m2) 29.54 ± 5.06 29.71 ± 4.77 29.69 ± 5.14 29.27 ± 4.95 0.366b
 Underweight (< 18.5 kg/m2) 2 (0.2) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (0,6) 0.311c
 Normal weight (18.5–24.99 kg/m2) 156 (17.2) 59 (15.2) 40 (16.1) 67 (19.9)
 Overweight (25–29.99 kg/m2) 379 (41.8) 135 (41.8) 110 (44.4) 134 (39.9)
 Obese (≥30 kg/m2) 370 (40.8) 139 (43.0) 98 (39.5) 133 (39.6)
Anxiety (HADS-A) 6.86 ± 4.15 7.08 ± 4.20 7.54 ± 4.23 5.85 ± 3.94 < 0.001b
Depression (HADS-D) 6.09 ± 4.30 5.74 ± 3.96 6.59 ± 4.21 4.94 ± 3.82 0.001b
Number of Comorbidities 4.47 ± 2.44 4.48 ± 2.42 5.11 ± 2.54 3.65 ± 2.19 < 0.001b
Daily alcohol intake 199 (20.4) 70 (20.5) 53 (19.5) 76 (20.9) 0.077c
Active smoker 71 (7.3) 25 (7.3) 16 (5.9) 30 (8.3) 0.519c
Ex-smoker 182 (17.9) 59 (18.6) 38 (14.8) 65 (19.5) 0.312c
Regular physical activity 201 (20.6) 58 (17.0) 41 (15.1) 102 (28.1) < 0.001c

Categorical variables are presented as n (%); continuous variables are presented as mean ± standard deviation

NHS National Health System, GP General Practitioner, HRQoL Health Related Quality of Life, EQ-5D-3L EuroQol with five dimensions and three levels, HAQ Health Assessment Questionnaire, HADS-A Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Anxiety subscale, HADS-D Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Depression subscale

aSample size is not constant due to participants with validated data in the following variables the following: Geographic location (n = 871), Years of education (n = 977), Employment status (n = 876), EQ-5D-3L score (n = 965), Alcohol intake (n = 977), BMI (n = 971), Regular physical activity (n = 977)

bKusskall-Wallis test

c Chi-squared test

dThis category includes participants who are students, domestic workers or that lives on revenues