Included External
Drop-out
P-value
n=166 n=53  
Age, mean (SD) 48.5 (22.3) 50.4 (22.9) 0.586
Age group     0.574
    <70 years, (%) 122 (73) 41 (77)  
    >70 years, (%) 44 (27) 12 (23)  
Sex     <0.0005
   Men 106 (64) 18 (34)  
   Women 60 (36) 35 (66)  
Days since hospital admission, median (q1-q3) 6 (3-14) 12 (5-28) 0.001
Distribution of patients within specialties, %  
   Medicine 22
   Surgery 42
   Orthopaedic 10
   Neurology 7
   Cardiology 11
   Urology 8
 
Distribution of patients according to most common diagnostic categories, %  
   Orthopaedic 22
   Trauma 19
   Gastrointestinal 16
   Neurological 8
   Pulmonary 7
ANOVA, Chi-square test, Mann Whitney U-test
q1-q3 = first-third quartile
Table 1: Comparisons between included patients and drop-outs.