Skip to main content

Table 2 Characteristics of practices, GPs and patients used for CME-M impact on patients’ prior contacts

From: Impact of a continuing medical education meeting on the use and timing of urgent cancer referrals among general practitioners - a before-after study

 

Reference group

CME-M group

Practices, N

240

144

 Proportion of solo practices (95% CI)

0.60 (0.54;0.66)

0.29 (0.22;0.37)

 GPs per practice, mean (range)

1.73 (1–5)

2.63 (1–10)

GPs, N

415

377

 Proportion of males (95% CI)

0.60 (0.55;0.64)

0.48 (0.43;0.53)

 Mean age (95% CI)

52.9 (52.0;53.7)

51.7 (50.9;52.5)

Referred patients (age ≥ 40 yrs.), N

Before CME-M, N = 7,659

After CME-M, N = 7,731

Before CME-M, N = 7,121

After CME-M, N = 7,417

Proportion of males (95% CI)

0.46 (0.45;0.47)

0.46 (0.45;0.47)

0.44 (0.43;0.46)

0.44 (0.43;0.45)

Mean age (95% CI)

63.1 (62.8;63.4)

63.2 (62.9;63.5)

62.7 (62.4;63.0)

62.9 (62.6;63.2)

Comorbidity (%)a

 None

75.9

75.3

76.4

75.7

 Medium

20.7

21.1

19.8

20.8

 High

3.4

3.6

3.8

3.6

Mean habitual F2F monthly contact rateb (95% CI)

0.60 (0.58;0.61)

0.57 (0.56;0.59)

0.61 (0.59;0.62)

0.60 (0.58;0.61)

Mean habitual total monthly contact rateb (95% CI)

1.05 (1.03;1.08)

1.02 (1.00;1.05)

1.07 (1.05;1.10)

1.04 (1.01;1.06)

  1. Abbreviations: CME-M continuing medical education meeting, GP general practitioner, CI confidence interval; yrs., years, DADI Danish Deprivation Index, F2F face-to-face
  2. aComorbidity scores were divided into “none” (no recorded disease), “ moderate” (score of 1 or 2) and “high” (score of 3 or more)
  3. bMean habitual monthly contact rate: average contacts per month based on number of contacts 7–12 months preceding referral for each patient