Table 1

Sociodemographic and disease-related characteristics of free-text respondents

Characteristic	No. received survey (n=34 467)	No. completed survey (n=21 802)	Survey response rate	No. provided comments (n=5634)	Free-text question response rate (%)	Comparison of those who did and did not provide comments
Sex
Male	19 580	12 683	64.8%	3180	25.1	p=0.002*
Female	14 887	9119	61.3%	2454	26.9	p=0.002*
Age at diagnosis
<55	3645	2040	56.0%	582	28.5	p<0.001†
55–64	7611	5154	67.7	1418	27.5
65–74	11 559	7824	67.7	1975	25.2
75–84	9302	5633	60.6	1368	24.3
85+	2359	1151	49.0	291	25.3
Ethnic group
White	24 781	16 079	64.9	4257	26.5	p=0.001*‡
Mixed	75	40	53.3	9	22.5
Asian	407	171	42.0	40	23.4
Black	332	143	43.1	24	16.8
Other	255	124	48.6	28	22.6
Unknown	8617	5245	60.9	1276	24.3
Index of multiple deprivation
1—least deprived	7812	5484	70.2	1595	29.1	p<0.001†
2	8090	5360	66.3	1460	27.2
3	7391	4742	64.2	1197	25.2
4	6267	3658	58.4	860	23.5
5—most deprived	4907	2558	52.1	522	20.4
Year of diagnosis
2010	16 491	10 523	63.8	2793	26.5	p=0.023*
2011	17 976	11 279	62.7	2841	25.2	p=0.023*
Tumour site
Colon	21 696	13 577	62.6	3544	26.1	p=0.502*
Rectosigmoid	2319	1512	65.2	389	25.7
Rectum	10 452	6713	64.2	1701	25.3
Duke's stage of disease at diagnosis
A	3536	2435	68.9	602	24.7	p=0.014‡
B	7710	5149	66.8	1335	25.9
C	6705	4482	66.8	1178	26.3
D	1766	1045	59.2	305	29.2
Unknown	14 750	8691	58.9	8691	25.5