Table 1.
Baseline characteristics
| People 65+ years living in households up to six people* | People 65+ years living in households of two people* | |||||
| All | Living alone | Not living alone | All | Living with someone with frailty | Cohabitee not recorded as frail | |
| Total study population (65 years+) | 4 876 285 | 1 464 379 | 3 411 906 | 2 459 937 | 255 312 | 2 204 625 |
| Male | 47.04% | 34.02% | 52.63% | 52.44% | 53.84% | 52.28% |
| Age, median (IQR) | 75 (70–81) |
79 (72–85) |
74 (69–79) |
74 (70–80) |
77 (71–83) |
74 (70–80) |
| Ethnicity | ||||||
| White | 80.96% | 83.06% | 80.06% | 82.85% | 84.64% | 82.64% |
| Mixed | 0.23% | 0.23% | 0.23% | 0.17% | 0.16% | 0.17% |
| Asian | 2.55% | 1.12% | 3.16% | 1.53% | 1.38% | 1.55% |
| Black | 1.11% | 1.11% | 1.11% | 0.66% | 0.54% | 0.67% |
| Other | 0.62% | 0.51% | 0.67% | 0.46% | 0.40% | 0.46% |
| Not stated/missing | 14.52% | 13.96% | 14.76% | 14.33% | 12.88% | 14.50% |
| Deprivation | ||||||
| Quintile #5 (least deprived quintile) | 23.37% | 19.71% | 24.94% | 26.19% | 24.52% | 26.38% |
| Quintile #4 | 22.87% | 20.89% | 23.72% | 24.45% | 23.27% | 24.59% |
| Quintile #3 | 21.29% | 20.97% | 21.43% | 21.51% | 21.22% | 21.54% |
| Quintile #2 | 17.68% | 19.63% | 16.84% | 16.08% | 17.03% | 15.96% |
| Quintile #1 (most deprived quintile) | 14.80% | 18.80% | 13.08% | 11.77% | 13.95% | 11.52% |
| Rural location | 22.27% | 19.08% | 23.64% | 25.04% | 22.56% | 25.32% |
| Diagnosis history (previous 3 years) | ||||||
| No frailty syndromes, mean (SD) | 0.36 (0.76) | 0.51 (0.90) | 0.30 (0.68) | 0.29 (0.67) | 0.40 (0.80) | 0.28 (0.65) |
| No Elixhauser conditions, mean (SD) | 2.07 (1.90) | 2.30 (1.99) | 1.97 (1.85) | 1.95 (1.83) | 2.22 (1.96) | 1.92 (1.81) |
| Frailty (1+ frailty-related syndrome) | 24.69% | 32.72% | 21.24% | 21.05% | 26.90% | 20.37% |
| Multimorbidity (2+ Elixhauser conditions) | 53.83% | 58.93% | 51.64% | 51.15% | 57.09% | 50.46% |
| History of mental ill health | 21.19% | 26.18% | 19.05% | 18.30% | 22.27% | 17.84% |
| Rates of hospital usage (previous 12 months), mean (SD) | ||||||
| A&E attendances | 0.61 (1.27) | 0.74 (1.50) | 0.56 (1.16) | 0.54 (1.14) | 0.67 (1.30) | 0.53 (1.11) |
| Emergency admissions | 0.38 (0.88) | 0.48 (1.01) | 0.34 (0.81) | 0.33 (0.80) | 0.42 (0.93) | 0.32 (0.79) |
For more baseline characteristics, please see online supplemental file 2.
*Study population consisted of all people aged 65 years or older, registered at GP practices in England on 16 December 2018 and living in England, with a valid pseudonymised UPRN, not living in a care home, with at least one hospital admission in the previous 3 years, and living in a household of either six people or fewer, or two people, respectively.
A&E, accident and emergency; GP, general practitioner; UPRN, Unique Property Reference Number.