Background information on questionnaire respondents stratified on setting and study group (%), N=2208
| Setting | GPC | MH-1813 | Combined | |||||||
| Subject | Subgroups n | No EAB option 472 | EAB non-user 448 | EAB user 354 | No EAB option 321 | EAB non-user 346 | EAB user 267 | No EAB option 793 | EAB non-user 794 | EAB user 621 |
| Sex | Male | 37.7 | 36.6 | 39.7** | 28.3 | 27.5 | 37.5 | 33.9 | 32.6 | 38.7 |
| Female | 62.3 | 63.4 | 60.3 | 71.7 | 72.5 | 62.5 | 66.1 | 67.4 | 61.3 | |
| Age group | 18–40 | 44.4 | 46.7 | 26.9 | 44.8 | 49 | 33.2 | 44.6 | 47.7 | 29.6 |
| 41–60 | 23.5 | 26.7 | 30.4 | 34.5 | 30 | 25.2 | 28 | 28.2 | 28.2 | |
| 61–75 | 20.7 | 18.2 | 28.4 | 13.8 | 16 | 22.5 | 17.9 | 17.3 | 25.9 | |
| 75< | 11.3 | 8.3 | 14.3 | 6.9 | 5 | 19.1 | 9.5 | 6.9 | 16.4 | |
| Ethnicity | Danish | 88.6 | 88.7 | 88.9¶ | 81.5* | 87.5 | 83.7 | 85.7 | 88.2 | 86.7 |
| Western immigrant | 6 | 6.3 | 4 | 8.5 | 7.8 | 6.1 | 7 | 7 | 4.9 | |
| Non-western immigrant | 5.4 | 5 | 7.1 | 10 | 4.6 | 10.2 | 7.3 | 4.8 | 8.4 | |
| Education | >15 years | 36.4 | 42.8 | 29.1 | 56.4 | 58.7 | 39.5 | 44.5 | 49.7 | 33.5 |
| 10–15 years | 47.7 | 43.9 | 50.8 | 35.2 | 34.1 | 45.1 | 42.6 | 39.6 | 48.4 | |
| <10 years | 16 | 13.2 | 20.1 | 8.4 | 7.2 | 15.4 | 12.9 | 10.6 | 18.1 | |
| Job status | Employed | 49 | 50.8 | 37.5 | 61.4 | 56.4 | 37 | 54.1‡ | 53.2 | 37.3 |
| Under education | 9.3 | 8.1 | 4.9 | 8.2 | 11 | 3.8 | 8.9 | 9.4 | 4.4 | |
| Retired | 29.9 | 24.2 | 45.8 | 17.6 | 17.1 | 43 | 24.9 | 21 | 44.6 | |
| Unemployed | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 8.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 6.2 | |
| On leave | 4 | 7.9 | 2.9 | 4.7 | 8.4 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 8.1 | 3.3 | |
| Other | 3.4 | 5 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 2.9 | 4.2 | 3.8 | 4.1 | 4.2 | |
| Living status | Cohabiting | 77.5 | 81.8 | 75.9†† | 75 | 81 | 68.6 | 76.5 | 81.5 | 72.8 |
| Living alone | 22.5 | 18.2 | 24.1 | 25 | 19 | 31.4 | 23.5§ | 18.5 | 27.2 | |
| Health status | Excellent | 10.1 | 11.5 | 9.7 | 16.9 | 13.6 | 12.2 | 12.8 | 12.4 | 10.7 |
| Very good | 31.3 | 36.2 | 25 | 35.7 | 43.2 | 24.4 | 33.1 | 39.2 | 24.8 | |
| Good | 36 | 31.2 | 35.5 | 30.7 | 32.8 | 30.9 | 33.8 | 31.9 | 33.6 | |
| Fair | 18.2 | 17.3 | 21.6 | 13.8 | 9 | 21 | 16.4 | 13.7 | 21.3 | |
| Poor | 4.5 | 3.8 | 8.2 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 11.5 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 9.6 | |
| GAD-2 score | ≤2 | 84.5† | 90 | 80.8 | 92.5 | 88.4 | 76.8 | 87.8 | 89.3 | 79.1 |
| >2 | 15.5 | 10 | 19.2 | 7.5 | 11.6 | 23.2 | 12.2 | 10.7 | 20.9 | |
| Level of perceived severity | Severe, potentially life-threatening | 8.1 | 5.2 | 37.4 | 7.5 | 6.1 | 29.7 | 7.8 | 5.6 | 34.1 |
| Severe, not life-threatening | 47.7 | 47.2 | 47.9 | 44.5 | 44.5 | 56.7 | 46.4 | 46 | 51.6 | |
| Not severe but needed to talk to a medical professional | 41.1 | 45.8 | 11 | 44.2 | 44.5 | 12.2 | 42.4 | 45.3 | 11.5 | |
| No illness but had questions | 2.6 | 1.1 | <5 (.) | 2.8 | 3.5 | <5 (.) | 2.7 | 2.1 | <5 (.) | |
| Don't know | <5 (.) | <5 (.) | 3.1 | <5 (.) | 1.4 | <5 (.) | 0.8 | 1 | 2.3 | |
| Triage outcome | Telephone advice only | 50.2 | 53.3 | 29.7 | 36.2 | 35.9 | 19.7 | 44.7 | 45.9 | 25.6 |
| Consultation at OOH clinic | 30.3 | 30.8 | 22.9 | 47.2 | 51.2 | 39.7 | 37 | 39.5 | 29.7 | |
| Home visit | 13.8 | 10.3 | 23.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.3 | 5.9 | 14 | |
| Hospital admittance | 2.8 | 3.3 | 8.5 | 11 | 7.2 | 19.7 | 6 | 5 | 13 | |
| Ambulance | 3 | 2.2 | 15.5 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 20.9 | 4 | 3.7 | 17.7 | |
Results with less than five cases are not reported due to data protection regulations by the Danish Data Protection Agency. These cases are instead labelled ‘<5’. In the ‘combined’ section, this is also the case as a percentage would give away results labelled n<5.
Significant differences within each setting were found between the distributions in the groups ‘no EAB option’ and ‘EAB non-user’ in marked cases (analysed using the χ2 test): (a) p=0.024, (b) p=0.014, (c) p=0.034 and (d) p=0.015.
‘EAB user’ group is significantly different from the two other groups in all variables except for gender (e) p=0.67, ethnicity (f) p=0.41 and living status (g) p=0.1 in the GPC.
Interpretations
*Less respondents with Danish ethnicity in ‘no EAB option’ group compared to ‘EAB non-user’ group in MH-1813.
†More respondents in ‘no EAB option’ group with positive GAD-2 score (>2) compared to ‘EAB non-user’ group in the GPC.
‡Significant difference in distribution of job status between ‘no EAB option’ group and ‘EAB non-user’ group when settings are combined.
§More respondents living alone in ‘no EAB option’ group compared to ‘EAB non-user’ group when settings are combined.
¶No significant difference in distribution of sex between the three study groups in GPC.
**No significant difference in distribution of ethnicity between the three study groups in GPC.
††No significant difference in distribution of ethnicity between the three study groups in GPC.
EAB, emergency access button; GAD, generalised anxiety disorder; GPC, general practitioner cooperative; MH-1813, medical helpline 1813; OOH, out-of-hours.