Table 3.

Association between a new discharge prescription for beta-blocker and 4-year post-discharge outcomes in a propensity-matched cohort of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for heart failure

	(events)
Outcomes	New discharge prescription for b-blocker		Absolute risk diff.*	Hazard ratio† (95 confidence interval)
	No (n=380) %,N	Yes (n=380) %,N
All-cause hospital readmission	83 (315)	81 (309)	−2	0.89 (0.76–1.04)
Heart failure readmission	49 (186)	49 (187)	0	0.92 (0.75–1.13)
All-cause mortality	60 (226)	53 (202)	−7	0.81 (0.67–0.98)
All-cause mortality or all-cause readmission	94 (357)	89 (339)	−5	0.86 (0.74–0.97)

^*Absolute risk differences(%) were calculated by subtracting percent events in patients receiving no beta-blocker from those receiving those drugs

^†The hazard ratios compared patients receiving beta-blocker versus those not receiving beta-blocker. These hazard ratios were calculated by treating patients without events during the first 30 days as censored