Skip to main content

Table 1 Characteristics of self-referred study participants and EMS vs. non-EMS subgroups

From: Diverting less urgent utilizers of emergency medical services to primary care: is it feasible? Patient and morbidity characteristics from a cross-sectional multicenter study of self-referring respiratory emergency department consulters

Variable

Measure

Group

p value for group difference

Total

EMS

non-EMS

EMS vs. non-EMS

Participants

n

292

99

188

 

Demographics

     

Age

n

292

99

188

 
 

Mean (SD)

Median (Range)

51.34 (18.89)

51.5 (18–96)

62.56 (16.33)

66.0 (19–92)

45.34 (17.46)

43.0 (18–96)

 < 0.001

Sex

n

292

99

188

 

 Male

%

51.4

57.6

47.3

0.10

 Female

%

48.6

42.4

52.7

Migration and travel

n

291

98

188

 

 Migrant first generation

%

26.8

11.2

35.1

 < 0.001

 Second generation

%

7.6

5.1

8.5

 Tourist

%

6.5

3.1

8.5

Education (CASMIN)

n

289

98

186

 

 Low

%

23.2

36.7

16.1

 < 0.001

 Intermediate

%

41.5

42.9

39.8

 High

%

35.3

20.4

44.1

ED consultation

     

Triage category

n

284

96

183

 

 Lower urgency

%

43.3

22.9

54.1

 < 0.001

 Higher urgency

%

56.7

77.1

45.9

Time of presentation

n

292

99

188

 

 Out-of-hours visit

%

23.6

33.3

18.1

0.004

 During office hours

%

76.4

66.7

81.9

Symptom-associated distress

n

277

93

180

 
 

Mean (SD)

Median (Range)

7.29 (1.78)

7.5 (1.5–10)

7.95 (1.64)

8.5 (2.0–10)

6.96 (1.78)

7.0 (1.5–10)

 < 0.001

Chronic conditions and care

     

Chronic pulmonary condition

n

291

99

187

 
 

%

57.7

81.8

44.4

 < 0.001

Multimorbidity

n

290

99

186

 
 

%

52.1

74.7

40.3

 < 0.001

Attached to GP

n

290

99

186

 
 

%

82.4

92.9

76.9

 < 0.001

Mental health

     

PHQ4 score

n

291

98

188

 
 

Mean (SD)

Median (Range)

4.03 (3.62)

3.0 (0–12)

3.96 (3.72)

3.0 (0–12)

4.07 (3.61)

3.0 (0–12)

0.69

ED visit outcomes

     

Diagnoses

n

292

99

188

 

 Pneumonia J12-J18

%

16.8

24.2

12.2

0.009

 COPD and chronic bronchitis

J40-J44

%

32.9

54.5

20.7

 < 0.001

 Asthma bronchiale J45-J46

%

12.0

7.1

14.4

0.07

 Other respiratory tract infection J09-J11, J20-J22

%

9.6

8.1

10.6

0.49

 Upper airway conditions J0x/J3x

%

11.6

4.0

16.0

0.003

 Respiratory symptom diagnosis only (R section code)

%

14.7

10.1

17.6

0.09

 Respiratory failure J96

%

17.8

36.4

7.4

 < 0.001

Visit consequence

n

292

99

188

 

 Outpatients

%

62.0

35.4

76.6

 < 0.001

 Hospital admission

%

38.0

64.6

23.4

Consultation motive categories

n

292

99

188

 

Distress

%

69.9

74.7

66.5

0.20

Access

%

30.8

17.2

37.8

 < 0.001

Quality

%

4.1

9.1

23.9

0.002

Convenience

%

18.5

2.0

5.3

0.18

Potential primary care cases

n

284

96

183

 

 Meeting criteria

%

29.6

9.4

40.1

 < 0.001

  1. n = cases with available data for respective characteristic; % = percentage of cases with available data; Means of arrival unknown for n = 5 participants, thus not categorized into EMS/non-EMS; Migration and travel: first generation = not born in Germany, second generation = born in Germany and mother/father (or both) born in another country; Time of presentation: out-of-hours defined as between 6 pm and 8 am on weekdays, plus weekends and Wednesdays afternoons after 2 pm; Subjective symptom-associated distress: 0–10 scale; PHQ4: 0–12 scale; Chronic pulmonary condition: if either self-reported or documented in hospital records; Multimorbidity: two or more chronic conditions reported by patient; Diagnoses: ICD-10 codes, multiple diagnoses possible for individual cases.; Motive categories: multi-response data, n = 265 (90.8%) attested to one or more of the four motive categories, percentages in table refer to total of cohort/group; “Distress” motive: symptom severity and anxiety; “Access”: service–defined barriers to alternative care; “Quality”: expectations of better care in hospital; “Convenience”: comfort and ease of ED access; Statistical comparisons of groups: χ2 test for categorical and Mann–Whitney-U-test for continuous variables
Back to article page

BMC Research Notes

ISSN: 1756-0500

Contact us