Baseline characteristics of people residing within the catchment area of hospitals linked to the Ontario Laboratories Information System and those residing in the catchment area of unlinked hospitals on Dec. 31, 2017
| Characteristic | No. (%) of people* | Standardized difference, %† | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catchment area of unlinked hospitals n = 4 739 202 | Catchment area of OLIS-linked hospitals n = 8 511 875 | ||
| Female sex | 2 380 493 (50.2) | 4 318 779 (50.7) | 1 |
| Rural residence‡ | 514 721 (10.9) | 883 021 (10.4) | 2 |
| Age, yr | |||
| Mean ± SD | 49.00 ± 18.52 | 48.35 ± 18.24 | 4 |
| Median (IQR) | 49 (34–62) | 48 (33–61) | 4 |
| Age category, yr | |||
| 18–34 | 1 260 590 (26.6) | 2 309 996 (27.1) | 0 |
| 35–44 | 761 956 (16.1) | 1 457 822 (17.1) | 1 |
| 45–54 | 865 243 (18.3) | 1 599 389 (18.8) | 1 |
| 55–64 | 825 632 (17.4) | 1 434 415 (16.8) | 0 |
| 65–74 | 567 124 (12.0) | 948 119 (11.1) | 1 |
| 75–84 | 303 503 (6.4) | 500 634 (5.9) | 1 |
| 85–94 | 132 614 (2.8) | 219 658 (2.6) | 1 |
| ≥ 95 | 22 540 (0.5) | 41 842 (0.5) | 0 |
| Income quintile§ | |||
| 1 (lowest) | 998 131 (21.1) | 1 539 627 (18.1) | 7 |
| 2 | 944 928 (19.9) | 1 629 030 (19.1) | 2 |
| 3 | 920 995 (19.4) | 1 741 443 (20.4) | 3 |
| 4 | 929 142 (19.6) | 1 851 508 (21.8) | 5 |
| 5 (highest) | 946 006 (20.0) | 1 750 267 (20.6) | 1 |
| Comorbidities in previous 5 yr | |||
| Hypertension | 1 084 337 (22.9) | 1 863 194 (21.9) | 2 |
| Diabetes | 541 778 (11.4) | 1 011 328 (11.9) | 1 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 144 924 (3.1) | 243 818 (2.9) | 1 |
| Congestive heart failure | 112 954 (2.4) | 164 019 (1.9) | 3 |
| Major cancer¶ | 201 358 (4.2) | 357 584 (4.2) | 0 |
Note: IQR = interquartile range, OLIS = Ontario Laboratories Information System, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Except where noted otherwise.
↵† Standardized differences are less sensitive to sample size than traditional hypothesis tests. They provide a measure of the difference between the groups divided by the pooled standard deviation; a value greater than 10% is interpreted as a meaningful difference between the groups.11
↵‡ Missing rural status was categorized as not rural.
↵§ Missing income quintile was imputed into the third quintile.
↵¶ Lung/bronchi, colon/rectum, breast, pancreas, prostate, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, liver, ovarian or esophageal.