Table 3 Distribution of clinical and healthcare characteristics of patients diagnosed with colon cancer between 2012-2018, by stage at diagnosis

	Stage I		Stage II		Stage III		Stage IV		Early (Stages I or II)	Advanced (Stages III or IV)	Missing			All patients
Colon cancer patients	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%	%	%	n	%	p-value^c	N	%
Number of physical morbidities													<0.01
0	178	35.1	422	38.9	376	39.2	460	42.9	37.7	41.1	225	39.6		1661	39.6
1	153	30.2	322	29.7	295	30.7	340	31.7	29.8	31.2	164	28.9		1274	30.4
2	74	14.6	190	17.5	151	15.7	170	15.8	16.6	15.8	80	14.1		665	15.9
3+	102	20.1	152	14.0	138	14.4	103	9.6	15.9	11.9	99	17.4		594	14.2
Number of mental health morbidities													0.02
0	398	78.5	812	74.8	738	76.9	864	80.5	76.0	78.8	446	78.5		3258	77.7
1	58	11.4	165	15.2	136	14.2	143	13.3	14.0	13.7	82	14.4		584	13.9
2+	51	10.1	109	10.0	86	9.0	66	6.2	10.0	7.5	40	7.0		352	8.4
Number of GP consultations 30 days to 2 years prior to cancer diagnosis													0.13
0-9	62	12.2	150	13.8	140	14.6	178	16.6	13.3	15.6	73	12.9		603	14.4
10-19	234	46.2	532	49.0	465	48.4	499	46.5	48.1	47.4	230	40.5		1960	46.7
20+	211	41.6	404	37.2	355	37.0	396	36.9	38.6	36.9	265	46.7		1631	38.9
Red-flag^a symptoms													0.04
No	424	83.6	971	89.4	850	88.5	975	90.9	87.6	89.8	508	89.4		3728	88.9
Yes	83	16.4	115	10.6	110	11.5	98	9.1	12.4	10.2	60	10.6		466	11.1
Only non-red-flag^b symptoms													<0.01
No	389	76.7	711	65.5	633	65.9	661	61.6	69.1	63.6	365	64.3		2759	65.8
Yes	118	23.3	375	34.5	327	34.1	412	38.4	30.9	36.4	203	35.7		1435	34.2
Anaemia (in absence of red-flag symptoms)													0.81
No	368	72.6	665	61.2	622	64.8	704	65.6	64.8	65.2	338	59.5		2697	64.3
Yes	139	27.4	421	38.8	338	35.2	369	34.4	35.2	34.8	230	40.5		1497	35.7
Total by stage	507	12.1	1,086	25.9	960	22.9	1073	25.6	38.0	48.5	568	13.5		4194	100.0

^a Red-flag symptoms: Change in bowel habits and rectal bleeding.
^bNon-red flag symptoms: abdominal pain/bloating, constipation or diarrhoea.
^cPearson’s Chi-squared test (two-sided), limiting to those with complete stage information, was used to test for an association between each listed characteristic and stage at diagnosis (p = <0.05).

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