Baseline characteristics of patients starting treatment with rosuvastatin 5 mg compared with simvastatin 20 mg (including information on the 1-year selection period following the start of treatment)

Characteristics	Total (N = 163 801)			Men (N = 71 460)			Women (N = 92 341)
	Rosuvastatin 5 mg	Simvastatin 20 mg	p-value	Rosuvastatin 5 mg	Simvastatin 20 mg	p-value	Rosuvastatin 5 mg	Simvastatin 20 mg	p-value
	(n = 106 941; %)	(n = 56 860; %)		(n = 46 266; %)	(n = 25 194; %)		(n = 60 675; %)	(n = 31 666; %)
Period of study entry			<0.0001			<0.0001			<0.0001
1st half of 2008	24.0	25.2		24.1	25.5		24.0	25.0
2nd half of 2008	22.4	22.8		22.7	22.7		22.2	23.0
1st half of 2009	29.5	26.1		29.4	26.1		29.6	26.2
2nd half of 2009	24.1	25.8		23.8	25.7		24.3	25.9
Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics
Male gender	43.3	44.3	<0.0001	100.0	100.0	—	0.0	0.0	—
Age at study entry (years)			<0.0001			0.8282			0.1680
40–44	5.3	5.0		4.6	4.6		7.5	7.2
45–49	9.0	8.6		7.8	8.2		10.9	10.7
50–54	14.8	14.4		13.6	14.6		15.0	16.4
55–59	19.8	19.7		18.7	17.8		19.0	17.2
60–64	19.4	19.0		19.7	19.8		16.1	14.8
65–69	12.8	13.0		14.5	13.8		12.4	12.5
70–74	10.9	11.4		12.4	12.5		10.5	11.1
75–79	7.9	8.9		8.7	8.7		8.7	10.0
Deprivation index of area of residence			<0.0001			<0.0001			<0.0001
1 (least deprived)	26.9	25.6		27.7	26.3		26.3	25.0
2	19.5	18.8		19.2	18.7		19.7	18.9
3	16.1	15.7		16.1	15.5		16.1	15.9
4	17.3	17.9		17.1	17.8		17.5	18.0
5 (most deprived)	19.0	20.8		18.8	20.6		19.2	21.0
Area with very few inhabitants *	1.1	1.2		1.1	1.2		1.2	1.2
Comedications and LTDs observed up to one year after the start of treatment in month m
Anticoagulants in (m, m + 1)	7.6	7.4	0.3251	8.1	8.0	0.6296	7.2	7.0	0.3216
Antiplatelet agents in (m, m + 11)	16.0	18.5	<0.0001	19.9	23.3	<0.0001	13.0	14.8	<0.0001
Antihypertensive drug in (m, m + 11)	56.6	60.1	<0.0001	56.0	59.5	<0.0001	57.1	60.6	<0.0001
Antidiabetic drug in (m, m + 11)	18.4	23.4	<0.0001	22.0	27.2	<0.0001	15.7	20.4	<0.0001
Heart disease LTD			0.2290			0.8494			0.1462
At m − 6	1.8	1.7		2.3	2.3		1.4	1.3
At m + 11, but not at m − 6	0.6	0.7		0.8	0.8		0.5	0.6
Hypertension LTD*			<0.0001			<0.0001			<0.0001
At m − 6	4.1	4.9		4.3	5.2		4.0	4.8
At m + 11, but not at m − 6	1.9	2.1		2.3	2.3		1.7	1.9
Comorbidities at m + 11
Antidepressant drug in (m, m + 11)	18.4	18.1	0.1507	11.5	11.7	0.5476	23.7	23.3	0.1642
Alzheimer's disease ‡	0.44	0.59	<0.0001	0.31	0.40	0.0392	0.53	0.74	0.0001
Asthma/COPD ‡	8.6	8.7	0.4884	8.8	8.8	0.9171	8.4	8.6	0.3226
End-stage renal disease ‡	0.021	0.025	0.5986	0.030	0.036	0.6973	0.013	0.016	0.7515
Cancer (not prior to m − 24) ‡	2.2	2.0	0.1187	2.6	2.6	0.9929	1.8	1.6	0.0148
Hospital admissions between m − 12 and m + 11
In (m − 12, m − 1) for cardiac or vascular reason§	2.0	2.1	0.2190	2.3	2.4	0.2691	1.7	1.8	0.6059
In (m, m + 11) for cardiac or vascular reason (≥1 night) §	1.9	2.0	0.5219	2.6	2.6	0.9400	1.4	1.5	0.5193
In (m, m + 11) for a reason other than cardiac or vascular reason (≥1 night) §	10.0	9.9	0.6307	9.8	9.8	0.8753	10.1	9.9	0.4491

Abbreviations: LTD, long-term disease (entitled to 100% reimbursement); COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

^*Heart disease LTD: severe heart failure, severe arrhythmia, valvular heart disease, severe congenital heart disease.

^†The deprivation index is not available for these areas.

^‡These comorbidities were identified on hospital discharge and LTD diagnoses and/or prescriptions for specific drugs.

^§Hospital admission for cardiac or vascular reason: Diagnosis-related group classified into fields of activity “cardiology (excluding vascular catheterization),” “vascular catheterization,” “peripheral vascular.”⁴⁷