Table 1 Respondents’ characteristics by consent group
From: Agreement between triage category and patient’s perception of priority in emergency departments
Characteristic | Consented | Non-consented | χ 2 (p) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
n | % | n | % | ||
Respondent | |||||
- Patient | 309 | 45.0 | 378 | 55.0 | 0.71 (0.22) |
- Parent/Carer | 108 | 48.2 | 116 | 51.8 | |
Age (year) | |||||
- Mean | 42.2 | 43.9 | F test: 1.79 | ||
- Standard Deviation | 18.3 | 18.4 | (0.18) | ||
Gender | |||||
- Male | 188 | 46.8 | 214 | 53.2 | 0.20 (0.35) |
- Female | 224 | 48.3 | 240 | 51.7 | |
Indigenous status | |||||
- Indigenousa | 23 | 54.8 | 19 | 45.2 | 0.66 (0.26) |
- Non-Indigenous | 389 | 48.3 | 416 | 51.7 | |
Country of birth | |||||
- Australia | 322 | 49.2 | 333 | 50.8 | 2.36 (0.07) |
- Other | 90 | 43.1 | 119 | 56.9 | |
Household weekly income | |||||
- $1–249 | 23 | 54.8 | 19 | 45.2 | 2.46 (0.65) |
- $250–599 | 87 | 51.5 | 82 | 48.5 | |
- $600–999 | 104 | 52.0 | 96 | 48.0 | |
- $1000–1599 | 84 | 45.7 | 100 | 54.3 | |
- $1600,+ | 65 | 52.4 | 59 | 47.6 | |
Highest education | |||||
- None/Primary | 46 | 54.1 | 39 | 45.9 | 2.63 (0.27) |
- High school/ Trade | 207 | 46.7 | 236 | 53.3 | |
- Tertiary | 157 | 51.6 | 147 | 48.4 | |
General health status | |||||
- Poor | 22 | 45.8 | 26 | 54.2 | 1.25 (0.87) |
- Fair | 55 | 50.9 | 53 | 49.1 | |
- Good | 113 | 46.3 | 131 | 53.7 | |
- Very good | 122 | 44.9 | 150 | 55.1 | |
- Excellent | 100 | 45.2 | 121 | 54.8 | |
Patient perceived priority | |||||
1 - Immediately | 54 | 49.5 | 55 | 50.5 | 3.80 (0.43) |
2 - Within 10 min | 63 | 42.9 | 84 | 57.1 | |
3 - Within 30 min | 128 | 44.1 | 162 | 55.9 | |
4 - Within 60 min | 100 | 50.3 | 99 | 49.7 | |
5 - Within 2 h | 61 | 50.8 | 59 | 49.2 | |
ED use in past 6 months | |||||
- None | 228 | 46.1 | 267 | 53.9 | 1.80 (0.41) |
- 1–2 times | 132 | 48.9 | 138 | 51.1 | |
- 3,+ times | 53 | 41.7 | 74 | 58.3 | |
Totalb | 417 | 45.8 | 494 | 54.2 | |