Table 2

Patients’ attitudes towards the cooperation between the primary sector and the Department of Oncology and patients’ assessments of their feeling of not being left in limbo

	3 months					6 months
	Control		Intervention			Control		Intervention
	N	Mean	N	Mean	p value*	N	Mean	N	Mean	p value*
Subgroup analyses for sex and age differences. Assessments 3 and 6 months after the introduction of the shared care programme.
N=number of patients who answered all index/item questions. Questions with missing values were excluded, so the numbers given here are lower than the numbers from the responders (fig 1).
Mean values range from 0 to 100. Questionnaire scores were linearly transformed to a range from 0 to 100. A high score represents a more positive attitude toward the subjects. Mean values are listed.
*The values did not correspond to a truly normal distribution but a mean value can illustrate the distribution. The Mann-Whitney U test was applied to detect statistical differences between the control and intervention group. Statistical level of significance 0.05. Asymptote significance (two tailed).
†The index consists of four questions concerning intersector cooperation.
‡The item consists of one question concerning the global assessment of intersector cooperation.
§The index consists of seven questions concerning the care during the period after coming out of hospital.¹¹
¶The item consists of one question concerning the global assessment of the care during the period after coming out of hospital.
Intersector cooperation (all patients)†	62	55.04	57	64.80	0.025	62	51.71	59	59.22	0.055
Global assessment of intersector cooperation‡	76	56.58	69	69.57	0.004	76	58.55	71	63.73	0.142
Feeling of not being left in limbo§	77	62.80	67	67.70	0.111	77	55.58	65	65.49	0.055
Global assessment of the feeling of not being left in limbo¶	83	55.12	76	61.84	0.168	83	52.71	72	57.64	0.324
Intersector cooperation†
Women	44	57.81	34	66.91	0.095	42	54.61	35	61.07	0.208
Men	18	48.26	23	61.68	0.091	20	45.63	24	56.51	0.076
Global assessment of intersector cooperation‡
Women	55	58.18	42	73.21	0.011	52	62.02	43	65.12	0.565
Men	21	52.38	27	63.89	0.137	24	51.04	28	61.61	0.078
Feeling of not being left in limbo§
Women	57	63.28	42	69.22	0.118	54	59.13	38	65.04	0.246
Men	20	61.43	25	65.14	0.429	23	57.30	27	66.14	0.031
Global assessment of the feeling of not being left in limbo¶
Women	61	56.15	47	64.36	0.127	59	51.69	42	55.36	0.595
Men	22	52.27	29	57.76	0.541	24	55.21	30	60.83	0.345
Intersector cooperation†
Age 18–49	20	45.94	26	63.70	0.001	23	48.10	27	58.10	0.121
Age 50–85	42	59.38	31	65.73	0.328	39	53.85	32	60.16	0.173
Global assessment of intersector cooperation‡
Age 18–49	23	43.48	28	70.54	0.001	26	54.81	30	58.33	0.469
Age 50–85	53	62.26	41	68.90	0.200	50	60.50	41	67.68	0.119
Feeling of not being left in limbo§
Age 18–49	23	56.68	31	67.05	0.024	25	54.29	30	65.48	0.031
Age 50–85	54	65.41	36	68.25	0.337	52	60.65	35	65.51	0.367
Global assessment of the feeling of not being left in limbo¶
Age 18–49	25	50.00	32	62.50	0.098	28	45.54	34	55.15	0.204
Age 50–85	58	57.33	44	61.36	0.450	55	56.36	38	59.87	0.606