Self-management of musculoskeletal hand pain and hand problems in community-dwelling adults aged 50 years and older: results from a cross-sectional study in a UK population

Table 2 Socio-demographic data for the survey cohort (n = 1811) and the clinical cohort (n = 219)

	Survey cohort (n = 1811)	Clinical cohort (n = 219)
Age^a	66.7 (9.6)	65 (8.2)
Gender (female)	1267 (70 %)	159 (73 %)
Socio-economic classification (1/2/3)^b	257 (16 %)	46 (21 %)
	228 (15 %)	33 (15 %)
	1068 (69 %)	106 (48 %)
Living alone (yes)	496 (29 %)	40 (18 %)
Age left school^a	14.9 (1.0)	15.2 (1.1)
Went on to full-time education after leaving school (yes)	177 (10 %)	33 (15 %)
Gained qualifications as an adult (yes)	501 (28 %)	90 (41 %)
AUSCAN function^a	18.6 (6.3)	17.9 (6.0)
AIMS2 function^a	4.0 (2.4)	4.0 (2.4)
AUSCAN pain^a	10.0 (3.4)	9.9 (3.5)

^amean (standard deviation)
^bthe three class version of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) was used [36]: 1 = higher managerial/professional and lower managerial/professional occupations; 2 = intermediate occupations; 3 = lower supervisory/technical, semi-routine and routine occupations; AUSCAN AUStralian CANadian Hand Osteoarthritis Index, AIMS2 Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2; Scoring range for AUSCAN function = 0–36, with higher scores indication poorer function; Scoring range for AIMS2 hand and finger function = 0–10, with higher scores indicating poorer function; Scoring for AUSCAN pain = 0–20, with higher scores indicating more pain; data subject to missing data (although questionnaires were returned by 1811 people, not all of the questions within the questionnaires had been completed by every respondent)

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