Table 1 Characteristics of the study sample by year

Age

0.862

 65 to 84 years

86.6 (86.0, 87.2)

86.6 (86.0, 87.1)

86.4 (86.0, 86.8)

 85 years or over

13.4 (12.8, 14.0)

13.4 (12.9, 14.0)

13.6 (13.2, 14.0)

Sex

0.997

 Women

56.0 (50.9, 61.0)

55.8 (51.5, 59.9)

55.8 (51.4, 60.2)

Socio-economic status (index of multiple deprivation quintile)

0.430

 Least deprived quintile

15.9 (12.7, 19.7)

17.8 (14.3, 22.0)

20.0 (16.8, 23.6)

 2nd quintile

16.0 (13.5, 18.9)

18.7 (16.3, 21.3)

16.6 (14.4, 19.2)

 3rd quintile

14.2 (11.9, 16.7)

13.3 (11.1, 15.7)

13.2 (10.6, 16.4)

 4th quintile

12.6 (9.9, 15.9)

10.5 (8.3, 13.2)

9.4 (7.7, 11.4)

 Most deprived quintile

8.4 (6.2, 11.2)

8.2 (6.5, 10.3)

6.0 (4.6, 7.7)

 Missing (no linkage)

33.0 (27.4, 39.0)

31.6 (26.7, 37.0)

34.7 (29.3, 40.6)

Multimorbidity (number of chronic conditions)

<0.001

 0

21.9 (19.5, 24.6)

18.7 (16.9, 20.8)

16.6 (14.9, 18.3)

 1 to 2

50.1 (47.5, 52.8)

46.9 (44.5, 49.2)

46.4 (44.3, 48.5)

 3 or more

27.9 (25.8, 30.2)

34.4 (32.3, 36.6)

37.0 (35.0, 39.2)

Medications count (number of drugs prescribed at least once during the year)

<0.001

 0

12.2 (10.5, 14.0)

9.7 (8.4, 11.3)

7.8 (6.6, 9.2)

 1

8.7 (7.4, 10.2)

7.1 (6.0, 8.4)

5.9 (4.9, 7.0)

 2 to 4

26.9 (24.8, 29.2)

25.3 (23.4, 27.3)

25.7 (23.8, 27.6)

 5 to 9

35.8 (33.5, 38.0)

36.6 (34.7, 38.5)

36.1 (34.0, 38.2)

 10 or more

16.4 (14.7, 18.3)

21.2 (19.6, 23.0)

24.6 (22.8, 26.5)

Medications count (number of drugs prescribed all quarters)

<0.001

 0

33.9 (31.5, 36.4)

26.5 (24.5, 28.5)

21.7 (19.8, 23.8)

 1

14.0 (12.5, 15.8)

12.8 (11.5, 14.4)

12.3 (10.9, 13.7)

 2 to 4

35.6 (33.3, 37.9)

35.7 (33.9, 37.5)

37.1 (35.0, 39.2)

 5 to 9

15.1 (13.6, 16.8)

23.2 (21.6, 24.9)

25.2 (23.3, 27.0)

 10 or more

1.3 (0.8, 2.2)

1.8 (1.4, 2.4)

3.8 (3.1, 4.6)