Table 1

Characteristics of community and care home patients aged 65–104 years

	England and Wales patients registered for at least 90 days with their general practice

Characteristic	Community			All care homes		Residential homes only		Nursing homes only
Mean age, years	74.7			85.5		86.1		84.9

	n	%		n	%	n	%	n	%

Total patients	403 259	100		10 387	100	4715	100	4269	100

Number of males	180 658	44.8		2405	23.2	975	20.7	1103	25.8

Mean number of medicines^a	4.9	–		8.4	–	8.1	–	8.8	–

Record of medication review	273 493	67.8		8454	81.4	3828	81.2	3505	82.1

		Crude	Standardised		Standardised		Standardised		Standardised

Disease prevalence	n	%	%^b	n	%^b	n	%^b	n	%^b

Coronary heart disease	68 948	17.1	20.2	1995	19.2	910	19.3	793	18.6

Heart failure	15 946	4.0	8.0	947	9.1	462	9.6	352	8.3

Stroke or TIA	17 694	4.4	6.3	1864	18.0	695	15.0	915	21.3

COPD or asthma	61 333	15.2	13.6	1161	11.2	568	11.7	429	9.5

Diabetes	52 669	13.1	11.3	1421	13.7	624	13.7	589	13.5

Hypothyroidism	36 059	8.9	11.6	1317	12.6	633	13.1	513	12.3

Dementia	6450	1.6	3.7	4256	41.0	1892	40.1	1870	43.6

Hypertension	198 734	49.3	56.8	4593	44.2	2123	44.7	1799	42.3

↵a Number of different classes in the last 90 days.
↵b Directly age- and sex-standardised to the combined England and Wales care home population.
COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. TIA = transient ischaemic attack.