Table 1.
Distributions of participants’ characteristics by physician visit frequency for PD treatment using chi-square tests
| Higher frequency | Lower frequency | Total | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1045 | 1179 | 2224 | |
| Sex | 0.31 | |||
| Male | 430 (41.1%) | 460 (39.0%) | 890 (40.0%) | |
| Female | 615 (58.9%) | 719 (61.0%) | 1334(60.0%) | |
| Age | < 0.01 | |||
| 75–79 | 291 (27.8%) | 371 (31.5%) | 662 (29.8%) | |
| 80–84 | 348 (33.3%) | 452 (38.3%) | 800 (36.0%) | |
| 85–89 | 284 (27.2%) | 246 (20.9%) | 530 (23.8%) | |
| ≥ 90 | 122 (11.7%) | 110 (9.3%) | 232 (10.4%) | |
| Residential facility | < 0.01 | |||
| Home | 734 (70.2%) | 939 (79.6%) | 1673 (75.2%) | |
| Retirement home | 31 (3.0%) | 54 (4.6%) | 85 (3.8%) | |
| Long-term care facility | 184 (17.6%) | 184 (15.6%) | 368 (16.5%) | |
| Health care institute | 96 (9.2%) | 2 (0.2%) | 98(4.4%) | |
| Long-term care level | 0.04 | |||
| None | 437 (41.8%) | 506 (42.9%) | 943 (42.4%) | |
| Requiring help | 96 (9.2%) | 147 (12.5%) | 243 (10.9%) | |
| Long-term care level 1–2 | 248 (23.7%) | 265 (22.5%) | 513 (23.1%) | |
| Long-term care level 3–5 | 264 (25.3%) | 261 (22.1%) | 525 (23.6%) | |
| Comorbidity | ||||
| Malignancy | 259 (24.8%) | 292 (24.8%) | 551 (24.8%) | 0.99 |
| Ischemic heart disease | 459 (43.9%) | 528 (44.8%) | 987 (44.4%) | 0.68 |
| Cerebrovascular disease | 756 (72.3%) | 808 (68.5%) | 1564 (70.3%) | 0.05 |
| Dyslipidemia | 473 (45.3%) | 610 (51.7%) | 1083 (48.7%) | 0.00 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 443 (42.4%) | 508 (43.1%) | 951 (42.8%) | 0.74 |
| Dementia | 675 (64.6%) | 735 (62.3%) | 1410 (63.4%) | 0.27 |
| Mortality | 589 (56.4%) | 548 (46.5%) | 1137 (51.1%) | < 0.01 |