Baseline characteristics by delivery mode
| Category | F2F prepandemic n=42 972 | F2F pandemic n=27 356 | Asynchronous n=8878 | Synchronous telephone n=1480 | Synchronous audiovisual n=5238 | P value* |
| Sex n (%) | ||||||
| Female | 23 430 (54.5) | 14 773 (54.0) | 4620 (52.0) | 845 (57.1) | 3068 (58.6) | <0.001 |
| Age median (IQR) | ||||||
| Years | 54 (30) | 56 (30) | 57 (20) | 68 (19) | 39 (25) | <0.001 |
| Ethnicity n (%) | ||||||
| Asian | 2389 (5.6) | 1208 (4.4) | 270 (3.0) | 58 (3.9) | 175 (3.3) | <0.001 |
| Black | 1365 (3.2) | 546 (2.0) | 290 (3.3) | 23 (1.6) | 71 (1.4) | |
| Other | 8054 (18.7) | 5461 (20.0) | 743 (8.4) | 125 (8.5) | 1596 (30.5) | |
| White | 5835 (13.6) | 2613 (9.6) | 802 (9.0) | 66 (4.5) | 447 (8.5) | |
| Unknown | 25 329 (58.9) | 17 528 (64.1) | 6773 (76.3) | 1208 (81.6) | 2949 (56.3) | |
| SES† median (IQR) | ||||||
| Decile (1=most deprived) | 5 (4) | 5 (4) | 5 (4) | 5 (4) | 4 (3) | <0.001 |
| Broadband access‡ median (IQR) | ||||||
| Index (1=most at risk of digital exclusion) | 3.40 (0.44) | 3.42 (0.47) | 3.41 (0.43) | 3.41 (0.45) | 3.42 (0.47) | 0.008 |
| Interpreter n (%) | ||||||
| Yes | 406 (0.9) | 214 (0.8) | 69 (0.8) | 14 (0.9) | 29 (0.6) | 0.007 |
| Diabetes n (%)§ | ||||||
| Yes | 1824 (4.2) | 1454 (5.3) | 887 (10.0) | 17 (1.2) | 10 (0.2) | <0.001 |
| Time of appointmentn (%) | ||||||
| Early morning | 20 115 (46.8) | 12 619 (46.1) | 3618 (40.8) | 396 (36.8) | 1815 (34.7) | <0.001 |
| Late morning | 2872 (6.7) | 2426 (8.9) | 1354 (15.2) | 129 (8.7) | 679 (13.0) | |
| Early afternoon | 16 298 (37.9) | 9990 (36.5) | 2502 (28.2) | 644 (43.5) | 1589 (30.3) | |
| Late afternoon | 3687 (8.6) | 2321 (8.5) | 1404 (15.8) | 311 (21.0) | 1155 (22.1) | |
| Sight-impaired n (%) | ||||||
| Yes | 266 (0.6) | 189 (0.7) | 30 (0.3) | ¶ | ¶ | <0.001 |
| Previous cancellation n (%) | ||||||
| No | 36 477 (84.9) | 22 744 (83.1) | 7228 (81.4) | 1138 (76.9) | 4675 (89.3) | <0.001 |
| By hospital | 4650 (10.8) | 3482 (12.7) | 925 (10.4) | 275 (18.6) | 448 (8.6) | |
| By patient | 1845 (4.3) | 1130 (4.1) | 725 (8.2) | 67 (4.5) | 115 (2.2) | |
| Specialty n (%) | ||||||
| Adnexal | 3278 (7.6) | 2441 (8.9) | ** | 129 (8.7) | 1174 (22.4) | <0.001 |
| Cataract | 7782 (18.1) | 6017 (22.0) | ** | 1171 (79.1) | 149 (2.8) | |
| General | 20 093 (46.8) | 11 025 (40.3) | ** | 180 (12.2) | 3915 (74.7) | |
| Glaucoma | 3883 (9.0) | 1955 (7.2) | 6138 (69.1) | ** | ** | |
| Medical retina | 7936 (18.5) | 5918 (21.6) | 2740 (30.9) | ** | ** | |
| Attendance status n (%) | ||||||
| Non-attendance | 3860 (9.0) | 2868 (10.5) | 1042 (11.7) | 145 (9.8) | 373 (7.1) | <0.001 |
*P values derived from U-Statistic permutation test for categorical variables and Kruskal-Wallis test for continuous variables looking at differences between all groups. For individual pairwise comparisons, see online supplemental table 1.
†Missing values from 216 patients. A lower number equates to greater deprivation.
‡Missing values from 216 patients. A lower number equates to a higher risk of digital exclusion.
§Footnote reminder here that medical retina is one of the two specialties that offered asynchronous care.
¶Figures suppressed due to small number of patients.
**No or minimal appointments for these subspecialties in this mode of delivery.
F2F, face to face; SES, socioeconomic status.