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Table 1 Characteristics of practices, GPs and patients used for CME-M impact on urgent referral rates

From: Impact of a continuing medical education meeting on the use and timing of urgent cancer referrals among general practitioners - a before-after study

 

Reference group

CME-M group

Study base, Practices, N

248

148

 Proportion of solo practices (95% CI)

0.60 (0.54;0.66)

0.30 (0.23;0.38)

 GPs per practice, mean (range)

1.72 (1–5)

2.60 (1–10)

GPs, N

425

385

 Proportion of males (95% CI)

0.59 (0.54;0.64)

0.48 (0.43;0.53)

 Mean age (95% CI)

52.6 (51.7;53.4)

51.6 (50.8;52.4)

Underlying practice populations, N

661,805

570,926

 Mean list size, patients ≥ 40 yrs. per practice

1353

1920

 Mean list size, patients ≥ 40 yrs. per GP in practice

787

738

 Proportion of male patients aged ≥ 40 yrs. (95% CI)

0.50 (0.49;0.50)

0.48 (0.47;0.49)

Age groups (yrs.), proportion of all patients ((%)(95% CI))

 0–39

48.6 (47.4; 49.9)

49.9 (48.4; 51.3)

 40–49

14.1 (13.8;14.4)

14.0 (13.7;14.4)

 50–59

13.4 (13.0;13.7)

12.7 (12.2;13.1)

 60–69

12.5 (12.0;12.9)

12.1 (11.6;12.6)

 70–79

7.3 (6.9;7.6)

7.2 (6.8;7.6)

80–90

3.5 (3.3; 3.7)

3.4 (3.2; 3.6)

 Above 90

0.76 (0.7; 0.8)

0.73 (0.7; 0.8)

Mean DADI index (95% CI)

26.9 (25.9;27.8)

25.5 (24.4;26.5)

Referred patients (age ≥ 40 yrs.)

Before CME-M, N = 8,388

After CME-M,

N = 8,534

Before CME-M,

N = 7,579

After CME-M,

N = 7,942

Proportion of males (95% CI)

0.47 (0.45;0.48)

0.45 (0.44;0.46)

0.44 (0.43;0.46)

0.44 (0.43;0.45)

Mean age (95% CI)

63.0 (62.7;63.3)

63.1 (62.9;63.4)

62.6 (62.3;62.9)

62.8 (62.5;63.1)

Comorbiditya (%)

 None

75.5

74.8

76.2

75.2

 Medium

20.9

21.3

19.9

21.0

 High

3.6

3.9

3.9

3.8

  1. Abbreviations: CME-M continuing medical education meeting, GP general practitioner, CI confidence interval; yrs., years, DADI Danish Deprivation Index
  2. aComorbidity scores were divided into “none” (no recorded disease),“ moderate” (score of 1 or 2) and “high” (score of 3 or more)