Gender differences in health-related quality of life of Australian chronically-ill adults: patient and physician characteristics do matter

Table 1 Distribution of patient gender according to patient and general practitioner characteristics for 2181 chronically-ill adults

Variable (definition)	Gender
	Male (n = 1018)		Female (n = 1163)		p-value ¹
	Number	%	Number	%
Characteristics of patients
Age, years
18–39	18	1.8	50	4.3	0.002
40–59	274	27.0	322	27.8
> 59	722	71.2	788	67.9
Health status
Good	603	60.4	631	55.4	0.019
Poor	396	39.6	509	44.6
Home ownership
Own home and car	795	79.2	797	69.3	<0.001
Own home only	22	2.2	121	10.5
Own car only	136	13.5	154	13.4
Rent and do not own a car	51	5.1	78	6.8
Education
Degree/Diploma	370	36.6	356	30.9	0.006
Elementary/High school	642	63.4	795	69.1
Employment
Employed	356	35.1	329	28.6	<0.001
Retired	512	50.5	507	44.1
Unemployed²	145	14.3	314	27.3
Marital status
Married (married/cohabiting)	766	77.8	722	64.1	<0.001
Unmarried³	219	22.2	405	35.9
Disease
One condition	571	56.7	768	68.3	<0.001
Two or more conditions	436	43.3	357	31.7
Smoker
Yes	88	8.8	123	10.8	0.127
No	909	91.2	1016	89.2
Overall PACIC score
High (above median)	457	46.2	557	50.8	0.035
Low (below median)	533	53.8	540	49.2
Characteristics of general practitioner (GP)(n = 193)
Gender of GP
Male (n = 121)	863	84.8	785	67.5	<0.001
Female (n = 72)	155	15.2	378	32.5
Country of graduation
Australia (n = 143)	834	81.9	912	78.6	0.686
Overseas (n = 49)	184	18.1	248	21.4
Years in the current practice
<6 (n = 85)	337	33.3	462	40.1	0.001
6–15 (n = 56)	266	26.3	307	26.7
> 15 (n = 47)	408	40.4	382	33.2
Years as a GP
< 19 (n = 77)	288	28.5	427	37.3	<0.001
19–24 (n = 48)	319	31.6	366	32.0
> 24 (n = 54)	403	39.9	352	30.7
Works in a small practice (1–3 GPs) (n=39)	435	42.7	487	41.9	0.686
Works in a large practice (>3 GPs) (n=154)	583	57.3	676	58.1
Location of work
Urban (n = 101)	503	49.4	524	45.1	0.042
Rural (n = 92)	515	50.6	639	54.9

Notes: ¹p-values are for comparison of categories of each variable by gender using Pearson’s chi-square test.
²Includes patients looking for work, studying full-time, looking after family and unable to work due to sickness or disability.
³Includes single/separated/divorced/widowed.
Unknowns: Age = 7, Home and car ownership = 27, Education = 18, Employment = 18, Marital status = 69, Disease = 50, Smoking = 46, Overall PACIC score = 94, Years as a GP = 26, Years in the practice = 19.
Patient characteristics were collected independently using PACIC for the same respondents.
n = number of GPs.

ISSN: 1477-7525