Hospital and outpatient clinic utilization among older people in the 3-5 years following the initiation of continuing care: a longitudinal cohort study

Table 4 Mean number of contacts with physicians in outpatient care in the 3 years following the decision to initiate continuing care in the groups with 0, 1, 2 or ≥3 hospital stays in the first year

Group	First year	Second year	Third year	p-value^a	Post-hoc analyses^b
0 hospital stay (n = 437) Mean (SD)	8.7 (9.2)	8.5 (8.7)	7.1 (8.3)	< 0.001	B, C
1 hospital stay (n = 118) Mean (SD)	13.0 (9.1)	10.9 (10.1)	9.6 (13.0)	0.005	A, B
2 hospital stays (n = 56) Mean (SD)	13.2 (6.5)	11.0 (7.9)	7.9 (6.3)	< 0.001	A, B, C
≥ 3 hospital stays (n = 65) Mean (SD)	18.6 (12.6)	14.4 (10.8)	12.9 (13.5)	0.011	A, B, C

Those who died were excluded from the analysis
^a) Repeated measures (with Huyunh- Feldts correction)
The Bonferroni method was used in the post-hoc analyses.
^b) Significant differences between: A = Years 1 and 2, B = Years 1 and 3, C = Year 2 and 3

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