Preventable hospitalization and access to primary health care in an area of Southern Italy

Table 1 Selected characteristics of the study population

Characteristic	N*	%
Sex
Male	236	48
Female	256	52
Age group, years
< 65	106	21.5
65–74	139	28.3
75–84	196	39.8
≥ 85	51	10.4
Median	75
Education level
No formal education	177	36
Primary school	186	37.8
Secondary school or higher	129	26.2
Marital status
Married	286	58.1
Others	206	41.9
Living condition
With family	368	74.8
Other	124	25.2
Additional persons in the household
None	110	22.4
1	205	41.6
> 1	177	36
Working activity
Retired	411	83.5
Other	81	16.5
Distance from home to hospital, km
≤ 5	227	46.1
6–35	153	31.1
> 35	112	22.8
Median	20
Type of admission
Emergency physician	432	87.8
Other	60	12.2
Length of hospital stay, days
Median	9
Age-adjusted Charlson et al. comorbidity index
Median	4
Self-reported health status on a 10 points scale
≤ 4	211	42.9
≥ 5	281	57.1
PCP accesses in the previous year
None	4	0.8
1–12	129	26.2
> 12	359	73
PCP medical visits in the previous year
≤ 12	304	62.3
> 12	184	37.7
Satisfaction with PCP health services
No/few	135	27.7
Rather/much	353	72.3
Difficulty of access to PCP health services
No/few	404	82.8
Rather/much	84	17.2
Patients for each PCP
< 1000	146	29.9
1000–1300	137	28.1
> 1300	205	42
District health services accesses in the previous year
None	310	63.5
≥ 1	178	36.5
Emergency accesses in the previous year
None	260	52.8
≥ 1	232	47.2
Hospital admissions in the previous year
None	275	55.9
≥ 1	217	44.1

*The numbers that do not add to 492 are due to not applicable data for the variable.
PCP, primary care physician.