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Table 1 Demographics of patients

From: Health care providers underestimate symptom intensities of cancer patients: A multicenter European study

   Respondents (N = 1933) Non respondents (N = 356) p-valuea
   N (%) Mean (SD) N (%) Mean (SD)  
Age   61.6 (12.1)   65.7 (12.9) < 0.001
Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS)   61.6 (16.4)   46.0 (16.0) < 0.001
Mini Mental State (MMS), total score   26.9 (3.3)   25.7 (4.0) 0.003
Time since diagnosis (months)   32.8 (46.7)   25.3 (44.3) 0.001
Time on opioids (months)   5.2 (11.3)   3.1 (7.1) 0.002
Gender Female 922 (47.7)   165 (47.1)   0.862
  Male 1011 (52.3)   185 (52.9)   
Department Hospitalized patients 1513 (78.3)   338 (97.1)   < 0.001
  Out-patients 420 (21.7)   10 (2.9)   
Status of opioid treatment Recently initiated, titration 353 (18.4)   94 (27.5)   < 0.001
  Stable dosing 1564 (81.6)   248 (72.5)   
Metastases b Bone 875 (45.3)   146 (42.0)   0.266
  CNS 104 (5.4)   28 (8.0)   0.060
  Liver 466 (24.1)   95 (27.3)   0.223
  Lung 426 (22.0)   77 (22.1)   1.000
  Other 762 (39.4)   151 (43.4)   0.172
Cancer diagnosis b Breast 268 (13.9)   33 (9.5)   0.025
  Female reproductive organs 145 (7.5)   29 (8.3)   0.584
  Gastrointestinal 442 (22.9)   83 (23.8)   0.730
  Haematological 113 (5.8)   20 (5.7)   1.000
  Head and neck 105 (5.4)   20 (5.7)   0.799
  Lung 346 (17.9)   71 (20.6)   0.257
  Other 168 (8.7)   40 (11.5)   0.106
  Prostate 230 (11.9)   34 (9.7)   0.275
  Unknown origin 51 (2.6)   11 (3.2)   0.591
  Urological 139 (7.2)   27 (7.7)   0.737
Country Denmark 29 (1.5)   2 (0.6)   0.213
  Finland 30 (1.6)   0   0.010
  Germany 273 (14.1)   178 (50.0)   < 0.001
  Greece 5 (0.3)   0   1.000
  Iceland 145 (7.5)   5 (1.4)   < 0.001
  Italy 398 (20.6)   62 (17.4)   0.195
  Lithuania 54 (2.8)   0   < 0.001
  Norway 475 (24.6)   88 (24.7)   0.947
  Sweden 119 (6.2)   16 (4.5)   0.270
  Switzerland 114 (5.9)   1 (0.3)   < 0.001
  United Kingdom 291 (15.1)   4 (1.1)   < 0.001
Reason for not completing all assessment forms Did not want to complete    96 (27.8)   
  Too ill    177 (51.3)   
  Unknown reason    72 (20.9)   
  1. aP-values from Mann-Whitney U test or Fisher's Exact test (2 × 2-tables)
  2. bSome patients had more than one cancer diagnosis and more than one localization of metastases, consequently the sum of percentages is larger than 100.
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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

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