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Table 4 Relationship between treatment workload variables and the Treatment Burden Questionnaire global score (n = 502 patients).

From: Development and description of measurement properties of an instrument to assess treatment burden among patients with multiple chronic conditions

 

Correlation with the Treatment Burden Questionnaire global scorea

No. (%)

Mean score

Pvalue

Correlation with treatment workload continuous variables

Number of hospitalizations during the last year

0.24

-

-

< 0.0001

Number of medical appointments/month

0.28

-

-

< 0.0001

Number of different physicians

0.29

-

-

< 0.0001

Total number of tablets/day

0.25

-

-

< 0.0001

Total number of injections/day

0.31

-

-

< 0.0001

Number of drug intakes/day

0.16

-

-

0.0004

Time needed for healthcare per week (sum of the time needed for surveillance and the time needed to organize the treatment)

0.4

-

-

< 0.0001

Comparison between groups defined by treatment workload qualitative variables

Need for a specific organization for daily care:

    

Yes

-

338 (67.3%)

34.41

 

No

 

164 (32.7%)

23.85

< 0.0001

Need for self-monitoring:

    

Yes

-

168 (33.5%)

41.24

< 0.0001

No

 

334 (66.5%)

25.79

 

Diet:

    

Yes

-

198 (40.3%)

38.34

< 0.0001

No

 

293 (59.7%)

26.01

 

Physical therapy:

    

Yes

-

113 (22.9%)

35.77

 

No

 

380 (77.1%)

29.73

0.02

Oxygen therapy:

    

Yes

-

22 (4.4%)

44.68

 

No

 

476 (94.8%)

30.47

0.005

Presence of side effects:

-

   

Yes

 

168 (36.3%)

42.07

< 0.0001

No

 

295 (63.7%)

25.08

 

The patient considers treatment as efficient:

    

Yes

-

317 (63.1%)

27.35

< 0.0001

No

 

185 (36.8%)

37.13

 
  1. Spearman correlation coefficient for continuous variables and two-sided Wilcoxon two-sample test for qualitative variables
  2. aGlobal score is the sum of all items scores of the questionnaire with 'Does not apply' and missing answers considered as the lowest possible score (0).