Table 2

Demographic and clinical characteristics associated with time between colonoscopy and colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery for all CRC cases (N=407)

Category	n	Median time (days)	IQR (days)	Adjusted HR*	95% CI*	p Value†
GP consultation between colonoscopy and surgery						<0.0001
Yes	175	27	18–42	0.44	0.34 to 0.58
No	232	15	8–23	1.00	(ref)
Specialist consultation between colonoscopy and surgery						0.002
Yes	285	21	14–35	0.62	0.47 to 0.84
No	122	13	7–22	1.00	(ref)
Sex						0.53
Woman	152	19	12–28	1.10	0.82 to 1.46
Man	255	20	12–31	1.00	(ref)
Age						0.33
<60	78	17	8–29	0.78	0.54 to 1.13
60–69	108	19	13–32	0.80	0.59 to 1.09
70–79	150	21	12–29	1.00	(ref)
80+	71	20	12–28	1.05	0.73 to 1.52
Country of birth						0.34
Australia	320	19	13–29	1.00	(ref)
Other	81	19	8–30	0.85	0.61 to 1.19
Unknown	6	12	10–40	Not incl.	Not incl.
Language spoken at home						0.20
English	377	19	12–29	1.00	(ref)
Non-English	30	21	10–38	1.40	0.84 to 2.31
Place of residence at diagnosis						0.95
Metropolitan	186	19	11–28	1.00	(ref)
Other urban	103	20	13–28	1.07	0.71 to 1.63
Rural	118	20	11–33	1.04	0.69 to 1.57
Type of housing						0.63
House	296	19	12–29	1.00	(ref)
Flat/unit	50	19	10–29	0.93	0.64 to 1.35
House on farm	28	21	12–48	0.76	0.48 to 1.20
Elderly accommodation	26	22	17–42	0.86	0.53 to 1.40
Other/unspecified	7	29	19–31	Not incl.	Not incl.
Socioeconomic status						0.13
Least disadvantaged quintile	143	17	11–28	1.00	(ref)
Quintile 2	64	20	12–34	0.94	0.60 to 1.46
Quintile 3	126	20	8–29	1.24	0.80 to 1.92
Quintile 4	58	22	14–33	0.82	0.53 to 1.26
Most disadvantaged quintile	16	22	14–27	1.60	0.80 to 3.19
Highest education level attained						0.53
No school certificate/other	48	20	14–31	1.09	0.74 to 1.60
School/intermediate certificate	102	22	16–33	1.00	(ref)
Higher school/leaving certificate	28	18	12–34	0.96	0.59 to 1.56
Trade/apprenticeship	56	18	13–28	1.36	0.92 to 2.00
Certificate/diploma	83	20	10–29	0.94	0.68 to 1.32
University degree or higher	80	16	8–36	1.16	0.80 to 1.70
Unspecified	10	13	3–22	Not incl.	Not incl.
Marital status						0.09
Married/living as married	288	24	12–37	1.00	(ref)
Single/divorced/separated	51	18	11–28	1.04	0.72 to 1.52
Widowed	65	22	17–34	0.69	0.48 to 0.97
Unspecified	3	20	9–21	Not incl.	Not incl.
Income level						0.11
<$20K p.a.	112	21	14–31	1.00	(ref)
$20K–<$40K p.a.	83	21	13–31	1.03	0.71 to 1.49
$40K–<$70K p.a.	62	18	9–35	0.83	0.56 to 1.23
$70K+ p.a.	52	13	8–29	1.50	0.95 to 2.35
Unspecified	98	19	13–28	1.19	0.85 to 1.66
Health insurance						0.42
Private with extras	190	18	9–28	1.00	(ref)
Private no extras	70	17	11–28	1.01	0.73 to 1.40
DVA/healthcare card	101	21	14–29	0.90	0.66 to 1.24
None of these	37	28	19–41	0.67	0.44 to 1.03
Missing	9	25	16–28	1.09	0.51 to 2.33
BMI‡						0.48
Underweight/normal (<25kg/m²)	155	18	10–28	1.00	(ref)
Overweight (25–<30 kg/m²)	157	20	12–35	0.86	0.66 to 1.13
Obese/morbidly obese (≥30 kg/m²)	66	22	13–31	0.95	0.68 to 1.34
Null/Not specified	29	19	11–29	0.72	0.45 to 1.15
Smoking status						0.33
Never smoker	203	19	10–29	1.00	(ref)
Ever smoker	204	19	12–30	1.13	0.89 to 1.44
Self-reported health status						0.37
Good–excellent	307	18	11–29	1.00	(ref)
Fair/poor	78	21	15–40	0.89	0.64 to 1.23
Unspecified	22	22	14–28	0.70	0.41 to 1.21
Cardiovascular disease						0.77
Yes	47	20	9–29	0.95	0.65 to 1.38
No	360	19	12–30	1.00	(ref)
COPD						0.47
Yes	29	20	11–27	1.19	0.74 to 1.92
No	378	19	12–30	1.00	(ref)
Diabetes						0.18
Yes	50	26	14–36	1.30	0.89 to 1.90
No	357	19	11–29	1.00	(ref)
Other key comorbidities						0.67
Yes	56	20	12–29	1.08	0.76 to 1.52
No	351	19	12–30	1.00	(ref)
Family history of CRC						0.99
Yes	75	20	13–33	1.00	0.75 to 1.34
No	332	19	12–29	1.00	(ref)
Disease stage						0.08
Localised	185	19	13–29	1.00	(ref)
Regional spread	176	19	10–29	1.16	0.91 to 1.48
Distant metastases	27	20	12–39	0.73	0.43 to 1.21
Unknown	19	35	13–48	0.65	0.37 to 1.16
Cancer site						<0.0001
Colon	265	18	10–27	1.00	(ref)
Rectum	142	22	14–37	0.58	0.45 to 0.74
Year of diagnosis						0.53
2004	43	19	9–26	1.32	0.86 to 2.02
2005	113	19	12–29	1.01	0.75 to 1.37
2006	111	21	14–32	1.13	0.84 to 1.52
2007	140	18	11–32	1.00	(ref)
Timing of CRC diagnosis relative to the 45 and Up questionnaire						0.61
Before (prevalent)	327	19	11–29	1.09	0.79 to 1.50
After (incident)	80	21	14–31	1.00	(ref)

*Adjusted for all other variables in this table (HR<1 indicates longer time between colonoscopy and surgery).
†Overall p Value from the Cox proportional hazards regression.
‡Calculated from self-reported weight (kg)/height (m)².
BMI, body mass index; CRC, colorectal cancer; DVA, Department of Veterans’ Affairs; GP, general practitioner; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; IQR, interquartile range; Not incl.: this category was not included in proportional hazards regression (n=26 overall); ref: reference category.