Out-of-hours contacts in Norway 2008–2016 for patients >64 years: characteristics of the study population weighted by the number of index contacts
| N=491 653 patients, 6865 physicians | Contacts | Not referred | Referred |
| All (%) | 944 512 | 704 566 (74.6) | 239 946 (26.4) |
| Mean age, years (SD) | 77.4 (8.4) | 77.0 (8.4) | 78.5 (8.4) |
| Male (%) | 404 376 (42.8) | 296 004 (42.0) | 108 372 (45.2) |
| Low education (%)* | 387 598 (41.3) | 285 683 (40.8) | 101 915 (42.7) |
| Immigration status (%)† | 39 021 (4.1) | 29 471 (4.2) | 9550 (4.0) |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index based on last hospital visit (>1) | 88 976 (9.6) | 60 368 (8.8) | 28 608 (12.2) |
| Previous health service use | |||
| Unplanned admission to hospital previous month (%) | 90 448 (9.6) | 61 596 (8.8) | 28 852 (12.0) |
| Elective contact with hospital previous month (%) | 193 869 (20.5) | 140 913 (20.0) | 52 956 (22.1) |
| Outpatient specialist contact previous month (planned and unplanned) (%) | 196 695 (20.8) | 143 187 (20.3) | 53 508 (22.3) |
| Primary care physician visits previous month (%) | 54 321 (5.8) | 40 276 (5.7) | 14 045 (5.9) |
| Discharge diagnosis, last hospital contact ICD-10 Chapter I Circulatory system (%) | 101 565 (10.8) | 72 872 (10.3) | 28 693 (12.0) |
| Discharge diagnosis, last hospital contact ICD-10 Chapter C Neoplasms (%) | 48 537 (5.1) | 34 632 (5.0) | 13 632 (5.7) |
| Referral diagnosis group from index contact | |||
| ICPC-2 Chapter A General and Unspecified (%) | 163 450 (17.7) | 117 335 (17.1) | 46 115 (19.6) |
| ICPC-2 Chapter D Digestive (%) | 91 721 (9.9) | 59 013 (8.6) | 32 708 (13.9) |
| ICPC-2 Chapter K Cardiovascular (%) | 95 745 (10.4) | 49 380 (7.2) | 46 365 (19.8) |
| ICPC-2 Chapter L Musculoskeletal (%) | 158 231 (17.2) | 108 334 (15.8) | 49 897 (21.3) |
| ICPC-2 Chapter R Respiratory (%) | 154 982 (16.8) | 119 144 (17.3) | 35 838 (15.3) |
| Physician referral preference for male patients‡, mean (SD) | 0.24 (0.09) | 0.23 (0.09) | 0.27 (0.09) |
| Physician referral preference for female patients§, mean (SD) | 0.27 (0.1) | 0.26 (0.09) | 0.29 (0.09) |
*Completed <13 years of school.
†Immigrants or Norwegian born to immigrant parents.
‡Physician referral preference for male patient was calculated by the physician’s proportion of referred female patients (526 809 contacts).
§Physician referral preference for female patients was calculated by the physician’s proportion of referred male patients (395 652 contacts).
ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision.