Table 1.

General characteristics of patients starting valsartan or enalapril therapy

	Valsartan		Enalapril
Characteristic	N	%	N	%
Total	3364	100.0	9103	100.0
Gender
Female (Ref.)	1939	57.6	4951	54.4
Male	1425	42.4a	4152	45.6
Age (years)
0–39	180	5.4a	609	6.7
40–64 (Ref.)	1832	54.5	4695	51.6
65–79	1174	34.9	3124	34.3
≥80	178	5.3a	675	7.4
Mean ± sd	60.5 ± 12.6		60.4 ± 13.9
Prescriber
GP (Ref.)	2613	77.7	6955	76.4
Specialist	751	22.3	2148	23.6
Previous use of antihypertensive drugs
Any AHT	2249	66.9a	5828	64.0
Diuretic	862	25.6a	3126	34.3
Beta-blocker	1253	37.2	3529	38.8
ACE	781	23.2a	740	8.1
ARB	284	8.4a	227	2.5
CCB	483	14.4a	1011	11.1
Miscellaneous	49	1.5a	89	1.0
Previous use of other cardiovascular drugs
Any CV drug	1277	38.0a	3775	41.5
Antithrombotic	682	20.3	1720	18.9
Lipid-lowering drug	557	16.6a	1153	12.7
Antidiabetic agent	332	9.9a	1829	20.1
Other	273	8.1a	599	6.6
Previous hospitalizations
CV event	162	4.8	437	4.8
Diabetes	4	0.1	28	0.3
Renal event	6	0.2a	50	0.5
Other	378	11.2	1037	11.4

^aStatistically significant for valsartan vs enalapril p < 0.05.

Abbreviations: ACE, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor; AHT, antihypertensive; ARB, angiotensin-2-receptor blocker; CCB, calcium-channel blocker; CV, cardiovascular; GP, general practitioner; Ref, reference group.