Australia and New Zealand Health Policy

Table 2 Distribution of hospital couplets by characteristics and intra-couplet interval

From: Patient-initiated switching between private and public inpatient hospitalisation in Western Australia 1980 – 2001: An analysis using linked data

Characteristic		Intra-Couplet Interval (I-CI)
		Less than 1 Year			1 Year or greater
		Number	% in Dataset	% Across I-CI	Number	% in Dataset	% Across I-CI
Sex
	Male	1397957	44.6	53.1*	1236314	38.2	46.9
	Female	1739643	55.4	46.5*	2002551	61.8	53.5
	Indeterminate	5	0.0	71.4	2	0.0	28.6
TOTAL		3137605	100	49.2*	3238867	100	50.8
Age Group
	0–16 Years	318255	10.2	43.5*	413593	12.8	56.5
	17–39 Years	871234	27.9	42.5*	1180203	36.5	57.5
	40–69 Years	1271495	40.7	53.4*	1110103	34.4	46.6
	70+ Years	664439	21.3	55.8*	527153	16.3	44.2
TOTAL		3125423	100¹	49.2*	3231052	100²	50.8
Hospital Type
	Teaching	1554708	49.6	62.6*	929585	28.7	37.4
	Public Metropolitan	249979	8.0	35.5*	453851	14.0	64.5
	Private Metropolitan	573729	18.3	37.6*	951062	29.4	62.4
	Public Country	672844	21.4	45.9*	793368	24.5	54.1
	Private Country	77205	2.5	42.0*	106581	3.3	58.0
	Other	9140	0.3	67.4*	4420	0.1	32.6
TOTAL		3137605	100	49.2*	3238867	100	50.8
Couplet Category
Concordant	Public	2104333	67.1	56.7*	1605368	49.6	43.3
	Private	887622	28.3	43.0*	1176629	36.3	57.0
Discordant	Public – Private	74132	2.4	31.5*	161140	5.0	68.5
	Private – Public	71518	2.3	19.4*	296730	9.1	80.6
TOTAL		3137605	100	49.2*	3238867	100	50.8

* Statistically significantly different (at the 0.05% level) to the proportion of couplets with an intra-couplet interval 1 year or greater.
¹ 12182 missing
² 7815 missing

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