Skip to main content
. 2016 May 26;16:109. doi: 10.1186/s12872-016-0276-5

Table 1.

Characteristics of patients diagnosed with their first acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department by sex and age category

Characteristics Age 50 years or younger Age 51 years or older
Male N = 647 Female N = 175 Male N = 2646 Female N = 1391
Age, mean (SD) 43.4 (6.1) 43.6 (5.5) 67.9 (11.0) 73.8 (11.4)**
Socioeconomic statusa, %
 Low 43.0 42.3 38.4 37.8
 Middle 28.7 26.3 28.5 26.7
 High 28.3 31.4 33.1 35.5
Born in Australia, % 51.3 66.3** 43.6 48.2*
Arrived by ambulance, % 54.7 52.6 69.9 76.1**
Arrived within 60 min of onset of symptoms, % 21.2 10.3** 13.3 9.9*
Triage urgencyb, %
 Resuscitation /Emergency 77.1 65.1 67.0 53.0
 All else 22.9 34.9** 33.0 47.0**
Presenting symptom, %
 Chest pain 86.2 84.0 80.1 71.2
 Arrhythmia 6.0 5.1 7.4 7.6
 Other (e.g., musculoskeletal, SOB) 5.6 9.1 10.7 18.8
 Referred due to abnormal finding 2.2 1.7 1.8 2.4**
Pulse pressure, mean (SD) 67.5 (20.8) 63.1 (25.6)* 76.3 (25.2) 80.1 (28.0)**
Heart rate, mean (SD) 81.1 (14.4) 85.5 (17.4)** 81.9 (14.7) 85.0 (17.1)**
Time from arrival till examined by a physician in minutes, mean (SD) 30.9 (52.9) 49.1 (61.9)** 46.1 (65.9) 64.5 (79.4)**
Discharged from ED to: %
 CCU or ICU or operating theatre 78.8 69.1 70.7 60.3
 Medical ward 21.2 30.9** 29.3 39.7**

Abbreviations: CCU coronary care unit, ED emergency department, ICU intensive care unit, SD standard deviation, SOB shortness of breath

**P value <0.001; * 0.001 < P value < 0.05

aThe socioeconomic status was based on the Socio-Economic Index For Areas disadvantage score (SEIFA)

bThe triage score is a ranking from one to five (one being the most urgent and five being non-urgent), given by a Triage nurse, used to prioritise or classify patients on the basis of illness or injury severity and need for medical and nursing care