This is not entirely surprising because the response proportion alone is theoretically not an ideal proxy for nonresponse bias (34).
Allred score system evaluates a combination of intensity and proportion, potentially increasing the prognostic value of the analysis by the intensity alone or the proportion alone in this study.
Among women, the proportions living alone were much higher and the proportions living with a spouse much lower, as would be expected given gender differences in marital status distributions in older age groups.
Among both men and women, the proportions living alone were higher, and proportions living with a relative other than a spouse lower, in 1991 than in 1981, especially in the oldest groups.
Using the "Quebec Model" [ 20], six indicators of material and social deprivation (proportion of persons with a high school diploma, employment/population ratio, average income, proportion of persons living alone, proportion of single parent families, and proportion of separated, divorced, and widowed persons) were extracted from census data.
A similar proportion lived alone in the community (39.9 per cent, n = 130).
Besides a growing population of older people, a greater proportion live alone and sociological changes have forced them to rely more often on their own resources [ 1].
The results show that patients meeting GSF criteria were significantly older than the remaining hospital population included in the study and that a greater proportion lived alone in the community or had been admitted from residential or nursing home care.
These changes have been greatest in very old age groups; between 1971 and 1991, for example, the proportion of women aged 85 years and over living in households including two or three generations fell from 42 to 21%, whereas the proportion living alone increased from 30 to 49% (Grundy, 1999).
