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Table 2 Number of GP and Specialist Visits Based on Self-Report and Administrative Data Sources by Number of Chronic Conditions

From: The impact of multimorbidity level and functional limitations on the accuracy of using self-reported survey data compared to administrative data to measure general practitioner and specialist visits in community-living adults

Health Service Use

0 CCs

(n = 12,206)

1 CC

(n = 15,027)

2 CCs

(n = 12,003)

3 CCs

(n = 7149)

4+ CCs

(n = 5469)

Overall

(n = 52,854)

General Practitioner Visits

 Number of visits in past 12 months

  Self-report

   Mean (SD)

1.77 (2.58)

3.00 (3.68)

4.12 (5.22)

5.28 (6.37)

6.84 (7.93)

36.5 (5.11)

   Median (IQR)

1 (0, 2)

2 (1, 4)

3 (2, 5)

4 (2, 6)

4 (3, 10)

2 (1, 4)

  Administrative data

   Mean (SD)

3.17 (3.97)

5.30 (5.63)

7.09 (6.72)

8.83 (7.63)

11.08 (9.30)

6.25 (6.79)

   Median (IQR)

2 (1, 4)

4 (2, 7)

5 (3, 9)

7 (4, 11)

9 (5, 14)

5 (2, 8)

  Difference in number of visits (SR-Admin)

   Mean (SD)

−1.39 (3.47)

−2.30 (5.15)

−2.97 (6.62)

−3.55 (7.70)

−4.24 (9.60)

−2.60 (6.24)

   Median (IQR)

−1 (−2, 0)

− 1 (− 4, 0)

−2. (−5, 0)

−2 (−6, 0)

−3 (−7, 0)

−1 (− 4, 0)

 Any visit in past 12 months

  Self-report, n (%)

9394 (71.1)

12,760 (84.9)

10,855 (90.4)

6630 (92.7)

5205 (95.2)

44,844 (84.8)

  Administrative data, n (%)

10,081 (76.3)

13,473 (89.7)

11,311 (94.2)

6906 (96.6)

5348 (97.8)

47,119 (89.1)

  Raw Agreement

81.4 (80.8, 82.1)

87.0 (86.4, 87.5)

89.9 (89.4, 90.4)

91.9 (91.3, 92.5)

94.2 (93.5, 94.8)

87.7 (87.4, 87.9)

  Sensitivity

84.4 (83.7, 85.1)

90.1 (89.6, 90.6)

92.6 (92.1, 93.1)

93.8 (93.2, 94.4)

95.7 (95.1, 96.2)

90.7 (90.4, 90.9)

  Specificity

71.7 (70.2, 73.3)

59.8 (57.4, 62.3)

45.4 (41.7, 49.1)

37.9 (31.8, 44.0)

27.3 (19.3, 35.2)

63.0 (61.7, 64.2)

Specialist Visits

 Number of visits in past 12 months

  Self-report

   Mean (SD)

1.10 (3.87)

1.67 (3.42)

2.24 (5.15)

2.74 (5.02)

3.61 (6.00)

2.00 (4.56)

   Median (IQR)

1 (0, 1)

1 (0, 2)

1 (1, 3)

2 (1, 3)

2 (1, 4)

1 (0, 2)

  Admin - Number of visits in past 12 months

   Mean (SD)

1.53 (3.49)

2.93 (5.46)

4.17 (6.70)

5.45 (7.85)

7.27 (9.69)

3.65 (6.55)

   Median (IQR)

0 (0, 2)

1 (0, 4)

2 (0, 5)

3 (1, 7)

5 (2, 9)

1 (0, 5)

  Difference in number of visits (SR-Admin)

   Mean (SD)

−0.43 (4.22)

−1.27 (4.64)

−1.94 (6.50)

−2.71 (7.48)

−3.67 (9.05)

−1.65 (6.10)

   Median (IQR)

0 (−1, 1)

0 (−2, 0)

− 1 (−3, 0)

−1 (−4, 0)

−2 (−5, 0)

0 (− 2, 0)

 Any visit in past 12 months

  Self-report, n (%)

7214 (54.6)

9945 (66.2)

9037 (75.3)

5741 (80.3)

4645 (84.9)

36,582 (69.2)

  Administrative data, n (%)

5843 (44.2)

9307 (61.9)

8728 (72.7)

5737 (80.2)

4710 (86.1)

34,325 (64.9)

  Overall Agreement (95% CI)

66.0 (65.2, 66.8)

69.4 (68.7, 70.2)

74.2 (73.4, 74.9)

78.7 (77.7, 79.6)

82.5 (81.5, 83.5)

72.3 (71.9, 72.6)

  Sensitivity (95% CI)

73.3 (72.2, 74.5)

78.7 (77.9, 79.6)

84.0 (83.2, 84.8)

86.7 (85.9, 87.6)

89.2 (88.3, 90.1)

81.9 (81.5, 82.3)

  Specificity (95% CI)

60.2 (59.1, 61.3)

54.2 (53.0, 55.5)

47.9 (46.2, 49.6)

45.8 (43.2, 48.4)

41.4 (37.9, 44.9)

54.3 (53.6, 55.1)

  1. CC=Chronic Condition; CI=Confidence interval; In a 2 × 2 table representing any physician visit based on self-report (SR) and administrative (A) data in which cell a: yes (SR) and yes (A), cell b: Y (SR) and no (A), cell c: N(SR) and Y(A), and cell d: N(SR) and N(A), overall agreement = 100*((a + c)/(a + b + c + d)), sensitivity = 100*((a/(a + c)), and specificity = 100*((d/(b + d))
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BMC Health Services Research

ISSN: 1472-6963

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