Table 1

 Selected beneficiary characteristics by plan

CharacteristicGatekeeping (n = 433)*Fee for service (n = 267)*p Value
*Number is slightly smaller at the individual variable level because of missing values. †Score on a 5 point Likert scale. ‡Several answers could be ticked. §Score on a four point Likert scale. ¶Unpaired t test. **χ2 test. ††Mann-Whitney U test.
Age (mean (SD) years)56.8 (17.1)53.6 (16.3)0.014¶
Female (%)53.260.30.068**
Duration of health insurance with the same company (mean (SD) years)29.7 (18.2)28.8 (18.0)0.555¶
Complementary insurance contracts (mean (SD) number)0.94 (0.75)1.0 (0.70)0.088
Importance assigned to low insurance premiums (mean (SD) score)†2.8 (1.1)2.5 (1.2)0.003††
Professional status (%)‡
    professionally active48.760.10.004**
    housework and childcare47.152.40.171**
    unemployed1.92.60.492**
    retired41.632.20.013**
Marital status (%)
    unmarried10.016.70.055**
    married71.664.0
    widowed11.210.6
    divorced7.28.7
Household size (mean (SD) number)
    adults2.0 (0.7)1.9 (0.8)0.208††
    children ⩽ 18 years0.40 (0.82)0.35 (0.73)0.631††
Nursing home residency (%)1.91.90.988**
Residency in the Aarau area in 1996 (%)97.290.6<0.001**
BMI (mean (SD) kg/m2)25.2 (4.4)24.9 (4.4)0.498¶
Physically active or doing sports (%)38.244.30.113**
Current smoking (%)22.230.00.022**
Current alcohol consumption87.087.20.801**
Importance assigned to healthy nutrition (mean (SD) score)§3.09 (0.67)3.04 (0.62)0.267††
Subjective health status (mean (SD) score)
    SF-36 general health scale70.6 (18.5)71.3 (19.9)0.648¶
    SF-36 physical health summary scale49.6 (9.9)50.0 (10.2)0.648¶
    SF-36 mental health summary scale52.1 (8.9)51.2 (9.4)0.247¶
ICED (mean (SD) score)
    in 20002.2 (3.1)2.0 (2.9)0.470††
    in 19961.8 (2.7)1.5 (2.4)0.378††
History of mental illness (%)17.118.80.635**