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