Table 2.
Variation of patient characteristics with different methods of identifying cases
| GP | Hospital | Paired GP/hospital | Pooled GP/hospital | p Value | |
| Myocardial infarction | |||||
| N | 139 | 137 | 99 | 173 | |
| ACE inhibitor/ARB (%) | 68 | 77 | 77 | 71 | 0.30 |
| β-blocker (%) | 68 | 61 | 59 | 61 | 0.50 |
| Calcium channel blocker (%) | 10 | 10 | 8 | 15 | 0.29 |
| Diuretic (%) | 32 | 32 | 28 | 29 | 0.87 |
| Nitrate (%) | 46 | 61 | 59 | 55 | 0.065 |
| Statin (%) | 79 | 81 | 77 | 76 | 0.70 |
| Antiplatelet agent (%) | 84 | 82 | 85 | 78 | 0.43 |
| Ischaemic heart disease | |||||
| N | 353 | 484 | 262 | 541 | |
| ACE inhibitor/ARB (%) | 48 | 48 | 58 | 45 | 0.013 |
| β-blocker (%) | 57 | 54 | 62 | 49 | 0.005 |
| Calcium channel blocker (%) | 21 | 21 | 25 | 19 | 0.28 |
| Diuretic (%) | 35 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 0.57 |
| Nitrate (%) | 40 | 43 | 60 | 40 | <0.001 |
| Statin (%) | 67 | 67 | 82 | 63 | <0.001 |
| Antiplatelet agent (%) | 71 | 71 | 87 | 66 | <0.001 |
| Cerebrovascular disease | |||||
| N | 285 | 278 | 145 | 381 | |
| ACE inhibitor/ARB (%) | 38 | 33 | 31 | 36 | 0.42 |
| β-blocker (%) | 25 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 0.16 |
| Calcium channel blocker (%) | 20 | 15 | 13 | 17 | 0.27 |
| Diuretic (%) | 32 | 33 | 32 | 33 | 0.99 |
| Nitrate (%) | 15 | 14 | 15 | 13 | 0.94 |
| Statin (%) | 56 | 41 | 53 | 50 | 0.006 |
| Antiplatelet agent (%) | 54 | 44 | 50 | 55 | 0.022 |
The 30-day prescribing rates for myocardial infarction, ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease, identified using GP, hospital, paired GP/hospital and pooled GP/hospital data. Patients are those alive at 30 days, and this is reflected by lower numbers of patients than in tables 1 and 3. Significant differences are calculated by χ2 test.
ARB, angiotensin receptor blocker; GP, general practitioner.