Characteristics of patients referred to the Income Security Health Promotion service
| Seen by the service (n=181) | Referred to the service but not seen (n=69) | |||
| n (%) or mean (95% CI) | n (%) or mean (95% CI) | p Value | ||
| Patient characteristics | ||||
| Age | 47.6 (45.4 to 49.8) | 45.8 (41.7 to 50.0) | 0.43 | |
| Gender | Female | 96 (53%) | 34 (49%) | 0.77 |
| Male | 78 (43%) | 33 (48%) | ||
| Transgender* | 7 (4%) | 2 (3%) | ||
| Homeless | 13 (7%) | 7 (10%) | 0.44 | |
| Number of medical problems | 4.7 (4.3 to 5.2) | 5.0 (4.2 to 5.9) | 0.49 | |
| Number of medications | 6.4 (5.7 to 7.2) | 6.1 (4.9 to 7.3) | 0.61 | |
| Referral form present | 119 (66%) | 58 (84%) | <0.01 | |
| Information provided on the referral form | (n=119) | (n=58) | ||
| Source of income† | Hourly wage | 14 (12%) | 12 (21%) | 0.11 |
| Salary | 15 (13%) | 5 (9%) | 0.43 | |
| Social assistance | 55 (46%) | 28 (48%) | 0.80 | |
| Pension | 9 (8%) | 4 (7%) | 0.87 | |
| Workers compensation | 1 (0.8%) | 0 (0%) | – | |
| Employment insurance | 9 (7%) | 3 (5%) | – | |
| Other | 26 (22%) | 15 (26%) | 0.55 | |
| Patient needs help with…† | …increasing income | 102 (86%) | 52 (90%) | 0.46 |
| …reducing expenses | 47 (40%) | 29 (50%) | 0.19 | |
| …financial literacy | 36 (30%) | 27 (47%) | 0.03 | |
| Interpreter required | 4 (3%) | 2 (3%) | – | |
| Literacy concerns | 14 (12%) | 7 (12%) | 0.95 | |
| Connected to community resources | 26 (22%) | 11 (19%) | 0.66 | |
| Spends a significant portion of income on medications | 10 (8%) | 8 (14%) | 0.27 | |
| Barriers to accessing health promotion service | 24 (20%) | 13 (22%) | 0.73 | |
| Urgent referral | 31 (26%) | 18 (31%) | 0.49 | |
*Includes male-to-female and female-to male transgender patients; bold face indicates significance at the 95% CI.
†Does not equal 100% because more than one option allowed.