Health care utilization among patients with oesophageal and gastric cancer: the impact of initial treatment strategy and assignment of a contact nurse

Table 5 The impact of assignment of a contact nurse (CN) on health care use

	Hospital stays, unplanned
	Unadjusted		Adjusted*
CN assignment	IRR (95% CI)	p-value	IRR (95% CI)	p-value
Yes	1.28 (1.16–1.40)	< 0.001	1.29 (1.17–1.42)	< 0.001
No	1.00 (reference)		1.00 (reference)
	Hospital stays, planned
	Unadjusted		Adjusted*
CN assignment	IRR (95% CI)	p-value	IRR (95% CI)	p-value
Yes	1.13 (0.99–1.28)	0.076	1.08 (0.94–1.23)	0.288
No	1.00 (reference)		1.00 (reference)
	Visits, specialist outpatient care, unplanned
	Unadjusted		Adjusted*
CN assignment	IRR (95% CI)	p-value	IRR (95% CI)	p-value
Yes	1.42 (1.27–1.59)	< 0.001	1.46 (1.30–1.64)	< 0.001
No	1.00 (reference)		1.00 (reference)
	Visits, specialist outpatient care, planned
	Unadjusted		Adjusted*
CN assignment	IRR (95% CI)	p-value	IRR (95% CI)	p-value
Yes	1.18 (1.13–1.24)	< 0.001	1.13 (1.08–1.19)	< 0.001
No	1.00 (reference)		1.00 (reference)

*Adjusted for age, sex, M stage, performance status and treatment strategy. CI = confidence interval; IRR = incidence rate ratio

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