Impact of telehealth on general practice contacts: findings from the whole systems demonstrator cluster randomised trial

Table 3 Baseline characteristics of intervention and controls groups (data are % of group unless otherwise specified)

	Control	Intervention	Standardised difference (%)
Number in group	1098	1219
Number of practices	80	82
Number of patients per practice (median (range))	10 (1 to 62)	8 (1 to 76)
Index long-term condition
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease	47.4	45.0	−4.8
Diabetes	22.6	27.1	10.4
Heart failure	30.0	27.9	−4.6
Number of chronic health conditions (mean (SD))	1.9 (1.8)	1.8 (1.8)	−3.9
Site
Cornwall	32.6	36.5	8.2
Kent	36.2	32.7	−7.2
Newham	31.2	30.8	−1.0
Age (mean (SD))	70.8 (11.8)	69.7 (11.6)	−9.3
Aged under 65	28.7	30.1	3.1
Aged 65-74	31.4	34.9	7.5
Aged 75-84	30.9	27.4	−7.7
Aged 85+	9.0	7.5	−5.3
Female (%)	40.4	41.1	1.3
Ethnicity
White	71.3	71.8	1.0
Non-white	13.2	12.3	−2.7
Unknown	15.5	15.9	1.2
Area-level deprivation (mean (SD))*	29.8 (13.8)	28.8 (14.9)	−6.9
1^st quartile	5.1	8.7	14.3
2^nd quartile	15.4	15.5	0.2
3^rd quartile	31.8	32.6	1.9
4^th quartile	47.7	43.2	−9.2
GP visits per person (prior year) (mean (SD))	9.0 (7.6)	8.8 (6.8)	−2.0
None	4.5	3.5	−4.8
1-5	35.2	33.1	−4.6
6-10	29.0	30.5	3.4
11-20	23.2	26.4	7.4
>20	8.1	6.5	−6.3
Practice nurse contacts per person (prior year) (mean (SD))	6.1 (8.1)	5.3 (7.8)	−10.2
None	14.8	15.5	2.1
1-5	51.1	57.1	12.1
6-10	16.4	14.8	−4.5
11-20	11.9	7.8	−13.9
>20	5.8	4.8	−4.4
Combined Model score (mean (SD))**	27.0 (20.2)	26.1 (20.1)	−4.3
Low risk	14.6	15.9	3.5
Moderate risk	30.0	32.1	4.5
High risk	44.3	41.6	−5.6
Very high risk	11.1	10.5	−1.9

SD = Standard deviation.
*n(controls) = 1096, n(intervention = 1214). First quartile is least deprived, fourth quartile is most deprived.
**n(controls) = 1,047; n(intervention) = 1,191. Risk categories denote top proportions of site population: very high risk (0.5%), high risk (0.5-5%), moderate risk (5-20%), and low risk (20-100%).

ISSN: 1472-6963