Triage of frail elderly with reduced exercise tolerance in primary care (TREE). a clustered randomized diagnostic study

Table 1 Characteristics of all invited frail patients (responders and non-responders)

	All frail patients^#	Patients willing to participate		Not willing^{^}	No response^>
		(n = 1249)
		Dyspnoea^*	No dyspnoea^<
	(n = 4142)	Dyspnoea^*	No dyspnoea^<
	(n = 4142)	(n = 841)	(n = 408)	(n = 1774)	(n = 1119)
Age (years), mean (sd)	75.6 ± 6.9	74.6 ± 6.3^·	73.8 ± 6.1^‡	76.3 ± 7.0^‡	75.9 ± 7.2^‡
Male sex, n (%)	1956 (47.2%)	419 (49.8%)^†	270 (66.2%)^‡	763 (43.0%)^‡	504 (45.0%)^‡
Co-morbidities (number), median (IQR)	3 (3–4)	3 (3–4)	3 (3–4)	3 (3–4)	3 (3–4)
Drugs (number), median (IQR)	5 (4–7)	6 (4–7)	5 (3–6)	5 (4–7)	6 (4–7)

^#All selected frail patients aged 65 years or over, ^*patients who were willing to participate and fully met the inclusion criteria (MRC dyspnoea ≥2 and/or a positive answer on questionnaire about reduce exercise tolerance), ^<patients who were willing to participate, but were excluded based on complaints (MRC dyspnoea score ≤1 and only negative answers on the questionnaire about reduce exercise tolerance), ^{^}patients who were not willing to participate, ^>patients who gave no response after sending 2 written invitations. ^‡ P = <0.05 compared to the patients with dyspnoea, ^† p = ns dyspnoea patients compared to patients not participating in the study (no dyspnoea, not willing and no response), ^· p = <0.05 dyspnoea compared to patients not participating in the study.

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