Self-reported demographic characteristics of online participants
| Characteristic | No. (%) of participants n = 665 |
|---|---|
| Role* | |
| Patient | 263 (39.5) |
| Caregiver | 352 (52.9) |
| Both | 50 (7.5) |
| Patient age (n = 608) | |
| ≤ 5 | 9 (1.5) |
| 6–18 | 23 (3.8) |
| 19–25 | 15 (2.5) |
| 26–49 | 100 (16.4) |
| 50–64 | 139 (22.9) |
| 65–79 | 185 (30.4) |
| ≥ 80 | 137 (22.5) |
| Patient gender (n = 607) | |
| Female | 357 (58.8) |
| Male | 244 (40.2) |
| Other† | 6 (1.0) |
| Discharge destination‡ | |
| Apartment, house, other place of residence | 635 (85.8) |
| Nursing or long-term care home | 30 (5.8) |
| Short-term rehabilitation facility, chronic care hospital or “other” | 54 (8.0) |
| Other patient characteristics (n = 591) | |
| Lives in community that is parallel to or north of Sudbury | 61 (10.3) |
| Lives in community with ≤ 30 000 residents | 149 (25.2) |
| Would take more than 60 min by car to get to hospital where they were last admitted | 83 (14.0) |
| Admitted to hospital more than once in previous year | 202 (34.2) |
| Does not have family doctor or nurse practitioner to attend to regular medical needs | 31 (5.2) |
| Does not have family or friends who can help when needed | 33 (5.6) |
| Lives alone | 148 (25.0) |
| Sometimes has difficulty making ends meet at end of month | 79 (13.4) |
| Does not have college diploma or university degree | 172 (29.1) |
| Came to Canada as immigrant within previous 10 yr | 11 (1.9) |
| Is most comfortable speaking language other than English with health care provider | 46 (7.8) |
| Identifies as member of LGBTQ2S community | 16 (2.7) |
| Has physical, sensory or developmental disability | 126 (21.3) |
| Admitted to hospital because of mental health condition | 23 (3.9) |
| Has dementia | 55 (9.3) |
↵* Participants could respond as a patient or caregiver or both. Caregiver participants reported the characteristics of the person they were caring for.
↵† Some respondents reported “other” because they were responding based on the experiences of more than 1 person (e.g., 2 different patients).
↵‡ Caregivers who were also patients responded with more than 1 location to indicate the discharge location for themselves and the patient, if they were different.