Table 2.

Sample characteristics by the four continuity of care index categories

	Overall	Low COC (>0–0.500)	Moderate COC (0.501–0.556)	High COC (0.557–0.999)	Maximum COC (1.000)	P-value
Sample size	1712	370	290	310	742

Men, %	45.1	44.3	47.6	41.6	46.0	0.465^a

Age in years, mean ± SD	1712	79.9 ± 7.2	80.4 ± 7.2	79.5 ± 7.0	79.6 ± 7.4	0.392^b

Age group, years	1712					0.761^c
60–74, %	25.2	24.3	22.1	26.8	26.1
74–79.5, %	24.7	25.7	27.9	24.8	22.9
79.5–85, %	25.4	25.9	22.8	25.2	26.1
≥85, %	24.8	24.1	27.2	23.2	24.8

Housing	1712					0.155^a
Independent, %	92.2	90.0	91.0	92.3	93.7
Care institution, %	7.8	10.0	9.0	7.7	6.3

Education	1711					0.645^c
Low, %	59.7	60.8	57.2	55.5	61.9
Middle, %	28.3	28.1	30.7	29.4	27.0
High, %	12.0	11.1	12.1	15.2	11.1

Partner status	1691					0.243^a
No partner, %	49.3	54.5	46.3	47.6	48.5
Co-residing partner, %	47.4	41.5	51.2	48.9	48.2
Partner outside household, %	3.4	4.1	2.5	3.6	3.3

Level of urbanicity (1–5; mean ± SD)	1710	3.2 ± 1.3	2.9 ± 1.4	3.1 ± 1.4	2.9 ± 1.4	0.006^c
Low (<500), %	17.2	16.8	21.4	14.2	17.0
Low middle (500–1000), %	23.3	12.7	19.3	27.2	28.5
Middle (1000–1500), %	17.4	18.9	21.7	15.9	15.7
High (1500–2500), %	23.9	34.3	19.0	22.3	21.2
Very high (≥2500), %	18.2	17.3	18.6	20.4	17.7

Smoking	1454					0.364^a
Non-smoker, %	34.3	30.5	32.3	36.4	36.2
Former smoker, %	51.2	52.6	53.6	52.0	49.0
Current smoker, %	14.5	16.8	14.1	11.5	14.8

Alcohol use	1446					0.700^a
No, %	25.7	22.6	27.5	25.8	26.5
Light, %	52.8	53.8	49.4	53.9	53.1
Moderate to very excessive, %	21.5	23.6	23.1	20.2	20.4

Morbidity (0–7; mean ± SD)	1689	2.0 ± 1.0	2.1 ± 1.0	2.0 ± 1.0	2.0 ± 1.0	0.253^d
No disease, %	8.1	9.2	7.1	9.5	7.4
1 disease, %	22.3	21.1	20.6	19.9	24.6
2 diseases, %	27.4	25.7	26.2	26.8	29.0
3 or more diseases, %	42.2	43.9	46.1	43.8	39.1

Functional limitations (0–6; mean ± SD)	1626	2.4 ± 2.1	2.6 ± 2.2	2.5 ± 2.1	2.3 ± 2.1	0.186^d
No, %	26.7	28.4	22.2	26.2	27.7	0.292^a
Yes, %	73.3	71.6	77.8	73.8	72.3

Cognition (0–30; mean ± SD)	1687	25.8 ± 3.9	26.0 ± 3.7	26.0 ± 3.8	26.0 ± 3.9	0.941^d
<24, %	18.7	20.3	19.1	18.0	18.1	0.816^a
≥24, %	81.3	79.7	80.9	82.0	81.9

Depression (0–60; mean ± SD)	1666	10.5 ± 7.7	11.2 ± 8.3	10.3 ± 7.6	10.0 ± 7.1	0.482^d
<16, %	80.1	79.7	76.8	80.7	81.3	0.450^a
≥16, %	19.9	20.3	23.2	19.3	18.7

Mastery (7–35; mean ± SD)	1450	22.9 ± 3.9	22.5 ± 4.3	22.6 ± 4.1	23.0 ± 4.1	0.390^b

Self-efficacy (12–60; mean ± SD)	1470	41.2 ± 5.2	41.3 ± 5.7	40.8 ± 5.5	40.8 ± 5.3	0.573^b

Self-esteem (4–20; mean ± SD)	1471	14.8 ± 2.4	14.8 ± 2.5	15.1 ± 2.2	15.0 ± 2.3	0.552^b

↵a Analysed with the χ² test.
↵b Analysed with one-way ANOVA test for continuous variables.
↵c Analysed with linear-by-linear association.
↵d Analysed with non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test for skewed and not normally distributed variables.
COC = continuity of care. SD = standard deviation.