Table 4.

Adjusted* postindex differences in the mean number of health services used by persons with dementia and a matched cohort of persons without dementia

Health service	Postindex†
	1 year N=4038	2 years N=3614	3 years N=3350	4 years N=3099	5 years N=2862
Family physician visits
Adjusted difference	6.42	2.41	3.71	3.26	2.77
% difference	70.0	23.9	38.5	32.2	27.0
P value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Specialist visits
Adjusted difference	1.11	−1.23	−0.88	−1.23	−1.18
% difference	23.1	−22.0	−16.2	−22.3	−21.0
P value	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Hospital admissions
Adjusted difference	0.22	−0.07	−0.05	−0.06	−0.11
% difference	37.7	−10.5	−8.5	−10.5	−18.0
P value	<0.001	0.082	0.117	0.120	0.01
Prescription drug dispensations
Adjusted difference	8.88	1.65	3.99	2.91	3.05
% difference	29.1	5.0	12.4	8.9	9.0
P value	<0.001	0.031	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001

Bold values indicate statistical significance (p<0.05)

*Adjusted for sex, age group, rural versus urban residence, geographical region, 1 year prior health service use (physician, hospital and prescription drug) and comorbidity score.

†People who died each year were removed from the study the following year.