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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Epidemiology. 2019 Nov;30(6):867–875. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001065

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of initiators of antihypertensive monotherapy among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries over 65 years of agea

BEFORE WEIGHTINGb AFTER WEIGHTINGb
ACEI/ARB, % THZ, % BB, % CCB, % THZ, % BB, % CCB, %
N 111,533 N 29,043 N 78,746 N 39,905 N 29,560 N 78,166 N 39,687
Demographics
Age
66–75 60 60 53 49 58 60 59
76–85 29 29 33 33 30 30 30
85+ 10 11 15 17 11 11 11
Sex (male) 37 25 36 32 38 37 36
Race
Whites 83 85 87 79 83 83 83
Blacks 6.4 8.4 5.4 11 6.1 6.5 6.4
Others 10 6.5 7.5 10 10 11 10
Year of drug initiation
2007 7.4 8.5 7.8 7.1 8.2 7.8 7.1
2008 18 20 18 17 20 18 17
2009 17 18 16 17 19 16 17
2010 17 16 16 17 17 16 17
2011 17 16 16 17 16 16 17
2012 17 15 17 17 15 17 17
2013 7.5 6.4 7.6 8.2 6.0 7.7 8.4
Comorbidities
Diabetes mellitus 39 17 25 26 40 38 38
Diabetes nephropathy 2.0 0.4 1.5 2.1 2.5 2.0 1.9
Diabetes neuropathy 6.1 2.3 4.0 3.9 7.2 6.3 6.4
Diabetes retinopathy 4.9 1.6 2.9 2.8 5.9 5.0 5.0
Heart failure 11 6.9 16 15 13 12 12
Myocardial infarction 0.5 0.2 1.9 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.6
Emphysema 3.0 3.0 3.7 5.7 3.3 3.0 3.2
Chronic bronchitis 16 14 17 23 17 16 16
Gastrointestinal diseases 0.8 0.9 1.2 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.8
Comedications
Metformin 17 4.5 6.3 5.0 18 16 17
Sulphonylureas 10 3.0 4.6 4.2 12 10 10
Thiazolidinediones 4.8 1.4 1.8 1.5 6.1 4.8 5.1
Other oral anti-hyperglycemic drugs 3.2 0.9 1.4 1.2 4.2 3.4 3.4
Insulin 6.9 2.0 4.1 4.5 8.7 7.0 7.3
Statins 40 30 37 31 40 39 40
NSAIDsc 18 20 16 17 19 19 19
Aspirinc 1.5 1.4 1.9 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.6
Healthcare utilization
Colonoscopy 8.7 9.3 9.3 8.3 8.6 8.9 8.7
Fecal occult blood test 9.3 10 9.2 8.4 9.4 9.3 9.4
Hospital admissions (≥1) 21 16 35 35 24 22 22
Physician office visits (≥1) 92 93 91 89 93 92 92

ACEI – Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors, ARB – Angiotensin Receptor Blockers, BB – beta blockers, THZ – thiazide Diuretics, BB – Beta Blockers, CCB – Calcium Channel Blockers, SD – standard deviations

a

Baseline was 12 months before the first prescription date. All potential confounders were assessed during this 12-months (6 months for comedications) before the first prescription.

b

Propensity score weighting was implemented by the stabilized morbidity ratio weighting where patients were weighted to reflect the covariate distributions in the ACEI/ARB population. ACEI/ARB cohort was given a weight of 1 and each comparator PS/(1-PS) * (1-prev)/prev, in which PS is the propensity score and prev is the marginal prevalence (proportion) of ACEI/ARB users in the study population.

c

NSAIDs and Aspirin use might not be captured well in the claims data since most of these agents are available over the counter.