| 2003–2004 Pre-intervention (n = 18 045) | 2004–2005 Post-intervention(n = 19 390) | p Value | |
| Demographic data | |||
| Mean (SD) age | 71.4 (16.6) | 72.9 (15.9) | <0.001 |
| Male sex | 9540 (52.9) | 10388 (53.6) | 0.17 |
| Comorbidities* | |||
| Cardiovascular disease | 4204 (23.3) | 3710 (19.1) | 0.015 |
| Chronic respiratory diseases | 1874 (10.4) | 2130 (11.0) | 0.061 |
| Chronic neurological disease | 1620 (9.0) | 1515 (7.8) | <0.001 |
| Malignancies | 1392 (7.7) | 1305 (6.7) | <0.001 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 1298 (7.2) | 977 (5.1) | <0.01 |
| Chronic renal disease | 1076 (6.0) | 951 (4.9) | <0.001 |
| Chronic hepatobiliary diseases | 651 (3.6) | 589 (3.0) | <0.001 |
| Neuropsychiatric illness | 247 (1.4) | 199 (1.0) | 0.002 |
| Rheumatological disease | 125 (0.7) | 92 (0.5) | 0.005 |
| Haematological diseases | 376 (2.1) | 469 (2.4) | 0.029 |
| One chronic medical illness | 8401 (46.6) | 7699 (39.7) | <0.001 |
| Two or more chronic medical | 2260 (12.5) | 1465 (7.6) | <0.001 |
| illnesses | |||
| No comorbidities | 7384 (40.9) | 10226 (52.7) | <0.001 |
*Comorbidities were coded from the World Health Organization, International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10).16