Table 1.
Background characteristics and clinical variables
| All N=445 |
EMS n=227 |
SHD n=93 |
PHC n=64 |
ER n=61 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sociodemographics | |||||
| Age, years* | 66±11 | 66±11 | 64±11 | 67±11 | 66±10 |
| Gender, men | 336 (76) | 177 (78) | 62 (67) | 50 (78) | 47 (77) |
| Education, ≤9 years | 171 (39) | 91 (40) | 24 (26) | 26 (41) | 30 (49) |
| Current smoker | 104 (24) | 58 (26) | 20 (22) | 16 (25) | 10 (16) |
| Falling ill at home | 341 (77) | 178 (78) | 72 (77) | 45 (70) | 46 (75) |
| Being alone at symptom onset | 119 (27) | 60 (26) | 18 (19) | 24 (38) | 17 (28) |
| Falling ill during a weekend | 129 (29) | 67 (30) | 34 (37) | 8 (12) | 20 (33) |
| Falling ill during evening/night at 18:00–6:00 | 156 (36) | 86 (39) | 33 (36) | 14 (22) | 23 (38) |
| Distance to hospital, ≥50 km | 74 (17) | 42 (19) | 16 (17) | 8 (12) | 8 (13) |
| Comorbidities | |||||
| Myocardial infarction | 55 (13) | 42 (18) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) | 9 (15) |
| Hypertension | 208 (47) | 103 (46) | 47 (51) | 33 (52) | 25 (41) |
| Atrial fibrillation | 22 (5) | 18 (8) | 2 (2) | 1 (2) | 1 (2) |
| Heart failure | 12 (3) | 11 (5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (2) |
| Diabetes | 68 (15) | 29 (13) | 20 (22) | 10 (16) | 9 (15) |
| Stroke | 8 (2) | 4 (2) | 2 (2) | 2 (3) | 0 (0) |
| Symptoms | |||||
| Believing symptoms originated from the heart | 295 (66) | 167 (74) | 51 (55) | 38 (59) | 39 (64) |
| Chest pain | 390 (88) | 207 (91) | 77 (83) | 54 (84) | 52 (85) |
| Cardinal symptoms† | 436 (98) | 225 (99) | 89 (96) | 62 (97) | 60 (98) |
| Pain intensity, numeric rating scale* | 6.8±2.1 | 7.2±2.0 | 6.2±2.3 | 6.6±1.8 | 6.7±1.9 |
| Symptom burden* | 5.3±2.5 | 5.6±2.6 | 5.3±2.4 | 4.9±2.3 | 4.7±2.1 |
Data are presented as numbers (percentages) if not otherwise indicated.
*Data are presented as mean±SD.
†Chest pain and/or radiating pain in the arms and/or cold sweat.
EMS, Emergency Medical Services; ER, emergency room; PHC, Primary Healthcare Centre; SHD, Swedish Healthcare Direct.