Do proxies reflect patients' health concerns about urinary incontinence and gait problems?

Table 3 Mean Absolute Difference between Patient and Proxy Responses for pSF-12 Physical Component Score(PCS), pUI scale, and FES Scores

		pSF-12 PCS			pUI scale			FES
Questions		N	mean absolute difference	(P value)	N	mean absolute difference	(P value)	N	mean absolute difference	(P value)
Relationship of proxy to patient	Husband	16	5.4		12	11.9		10	5.4
	Wife	7	9.8		2	4.3		6	5.3
	Son	4	5.8		2	30.2		4	0.9
	Daughter	11	4.8		5	5.3		8	8.7
	Others+	5	7.0	(0.32)	3	24.7	(0.16)*	4	9.8	(0.14)*
Proxy's gender	Male	21	5.7		14	14.5		15	4.1
	Female	22	6.2	(0.52)	10	10.9	(0.52)	17	8.0	(0.06)*
Proxy's educational level	Professional	7	7.0		4	10.7		4	8.0
	College	14	5.5		8	16.6		13	7.4
	Vocational	14	6.0		7	15.2		10	4.4
	High School	7	7.2	(0.87)	4	7.6	(0.70)	5	5.2	(0.60)
Proxy lives with patient?	Yes	35	6.6		21	11.5		25	4.8
	No	8	4.4	(0.28)	3	24.0	(0.12)	7	11.0	(0.05)*
How often proxy accompanies patient to MD visit?	Always	17	7.5		11	13.9		13	5.7
	Usually	7	7.2		3	10.1		5	5.0
	Sometimes	13	4.4		6	14.7		11	7.5
	Never	5	5.0	(0.40)	3	13.8	(0.97)	3	5.7	(0.85)
Days per week proxy sees patient?	7 days	29	5.9		17	13.1		20	4.3
	<7 days	9	4.7	(0.51)	3	24.0	(0.21)	8	10.1	(0.05)*
	No answer	4	11.5		3	6.0		4	7.6
How well proxy knows about patient's health?	Very well	29	6.5		15	11.1		21	7.7
	Pretty well	10	6.1		6	15.3		9	3.8
	Somewhat	3	3.2	(0.59)	2	27.0	(0.26)	2	1.2	(0.08)*
Is proxy familiar with patient's meds?	Yes	36	6.3		19	13.9		27	6.6
	No	3	4.1		2	3.6		3	1.0
	Not sure	2	7.9		1	36.6		2	8.5
	Not Taking	1	4.0	(0.83)	1	4.4	(0.19)	0		(0.25)
How well proxy knows about patient's activity?	Very well	36	6.2		22	14.0		27	6.7
	Pretty well	5	5.3		1	5.0		4	4.0
	Somewhat	1	11.2	(0.59)	0		(0.52)	1	1.0	(0.48)
How well proxy knows about patient's mood?	Very well	24	6.3		11	13.0		18	7.4
	Pretty well	16	6.3		12	14.1		12	4.7
	Somewhat	2	3.8	(0.81)	0		(0.84)	2	4.0	(0.42)

Note: Information on relationship to patient, gender and whether or not proxy lives with patient was available from patients, thus, includes a person who did not respond to the mail survey.
* P value derived from Kruskal-Wallis test because test for equal variance did not hold.
+ Others included roommate fiancé, niece, and sister.

ISSN: 1477-7525