Distance and utilisation of out-of-hours services in a Norwegian urban/rural district: an ecological study

Table 4 Distance and first actions taken

	Change 0 to 50 km (%)	Constant	Coefficient (β)	95% CI for β	R²	p
Consultation doctor	-55.0	5.54	-0.016	-0.017 to -0.015	0.96	<0.001
Consultation others	-47.8	0.43	-0.013	-0.120 to -0.001	0.13	0.020
Consultation others	-16.5*	1.82*	-0.006*	-0.018 to -0.008*	0.36*	<0.001*
Emergency ambulance with doctor	-29.5	2.11	-0.007	-0.100 to -0.004	0.30	<0.001
Doctor’s home visit	-42.3	1.81	-0.011	-0.140 to -0.008	0.57	<0.001
Doctor’s home visit	-24.4*	7.78*	-0.038*	-0.048 to -0.029*	0.58*	<0.001*
Telephone consultation by doctor	10.5	3.79	0.002	0.001 to 0.003	0.15	0.006
Telephone by nurse	-33.0	4.07	-0.008	-0.009 to -0.007	0.85	<0.001

Relative change in rates of different first actions taken after contact with the out-of-hours service when moving 50 kilometres away from the casualty clinic. Simple linear regression for the association between distance and the different priority grades performed (ln-transformed, except data marked *). N = 50.

ISSN: 1472-6963