Referral patterns and proximity to palliative care inpatient services by level of socio-economic disadvantage. A national study using spatial analysis

Table 3 Demographic and proximity data at a patient level for all people in the Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration database July 1 – December 31, 2009, by Socio-Economic Index for Areas of Disadvantage (2006 Census data; SEIFA)

Patient-level data		SEIFA Group
		Low⁴	Medium	High⁴
Age (years)	Mean²	70.3	70.1	71.3
	Median	72	72	73
	IQR¹	19	20	20
Distance from inpatient care (kilometres)	Mean³	43.4	29.9	14.6
Distance from inpatient care (kilometres)	Median	9.9	9.4	8.1
	IQR¹	25.8	14.6	9.9

¹ Inter quartile range.
² High SEIFA group significantly older than both other groups (multiple t-test: largest p = 0.002).
³ Low SEIFA group significantly greater than both other groups (multiple t-test: largest p < 0.001).
⁴ SEIFA low – most disadvantaged; SEIFA high – most advantaged.

ISSN: 1472-6963