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Table 1 Characteristics of people treated for localised melanoma by follow-up practice patternsa

From: Use of shared care and routine tests in follow-up after treatment for localised cutaneous melanoma

 

All follow-up with MIA or included follow-up with specialist outside MIA

(n = 122)

Follow-up outside MIA which included local GP

(n = 100)

Comparison of follow-up which did and did not include local GP (p-value)b

Total

(n = 230)c

Age in years, mean (SD)

62.9 (14.3)

62.6 (11.9)

0.81

62.6 (13.2)

Gender

  

0.006

 

 Female

47 (39, 56)

30 (22, 39)

 

38 (33, 44)

 Male

53 (45, 61)

70 (61, 78)

 

62 (56, 67)

Living with others

77 (69, 84)

77 (68, 84)

0.95

78 (72, 83)

Highest educational level

  

< 0.001

 

 Did not complete secondary school

15 (10, 22)

38 (29, 47)

 

26 (21, 32)

 Completed secondary school

31 (24, 39)

14 (9, 21)

 

24 (19, 29)

 Completed certificate or trade

27 (21, 35)

28 (20, 37)

 

27 (22, 32)

 Completed university degree

27 (20, 35)

21 (14, 29)

 

24 (19, 29)

 Missing

   

(n = 1)

SEIFA categoryd

  

0.34

 

 Low socio-economic status (deciles 1–3)

15 (10, 22)

20 (13, 28)

 

18 (13, 23)

 Medium to High socio-economic status (deciles 4–10)

85 (78, 90)

80 (72, 87)

 

83 (77, 87)

Remoteness areae

  

< 0.001*

 

 Major cities of Australia

83 (76, 88)

66 (57, 75)

 

75 (69, 80)

 Inner regional Australia

15 (10, 22)

26 (19, 34)

 

19 (15, 25)

 Outer regional Australia

2 (1, 3)

8 (4, 15)

 

6 (4, 9)

Age at diagnosis in years, mean (SD)

60.9 (14.4)

60.8 (11.9)

0.85

60.7 (13.3)

More than a year since diagnosis

90 (84, 94)

92 (85, 96)

0.55

91 (87, 94)

AJCC substage

  

0.02*

 

 Stage 0

20 (14, 28)

25 (18, 35)

 

23 (18, 29)

 Stage IA

20 (14, 28)

28 (20, 38)

 

25 (20, 31)

 Stage IB

38 (30, 47)

30 (22, 39)

 

33 (27, 39)

 Stage IIA

11 (9, 13)

10 (8, 12)

 

11 (10, 12)

 Stage IIB/C

11 (9, 13)

7 (6, 9)

 

9 (8, 10)

Primary site of melanoma

  

0.15

 

 Limb

51 (42, 59)

38 (30, 48)

 

46 (40, 52)

 Trunk

30 (23, 38)

37 (29, 46)

 

33 (27, 39)

 Head or neck

20 (14, 27)

24 (17, 33)

 

22 (17, 27)

History of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC)

46 (38, 54)

59 (49, 67)

0.08

50 (44, 56)

Other chronic health problem

21 (15, 28)

26 (19, 35)

0.35

23 (18, 28)

No. of different doctors seen last year for skin checks

  

< 0.001*

 

 0

0

0

 

4 (2, 7)

 1

56 (47, 64)

28 (21, 38)

 

41 (36, 47)

 2

35 (27, 43)

41 (33, 50)

 

36 (31, 42)

 3

10 (6, 15)

31 (23, 40)

 

19 (15, 24)

  1. AJCC American Joint Committee on Cancer, GP general practitioner, MIA Melanoma Institute Australia, SD standard deviation, SEIFA Socio-Economic Indexes For Areas
  2. *Trend test
  3. aAll values reported are column percentages (95% confidence intervals) unless otherwise indicated. Percentages were adjusted for stratified sampling from the total inception cohort. Some column totals do not add to 100% due to rounding
  4. bp-values for comparison of [all follow-up with MIA + follow-up outside MIA not including GP] group versus follow-up outside MIA including GP group
  5. cIncluded people who had no follow-up in the past year (n = 8)
  6. dBased on Postal Area Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 [32]
  7. eBased on 1270055006C190 Postcode 2012 to Remoteness Area 2011, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011 [33]
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BMC Health Services Research

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