Table 2.
Clinical characteristics, multimorbidity, and medication use
| Characteristic | Female, n = 396 | Male, n = 1057 | Adjusted p value† | All, n = 1456†† |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | ||||
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 68.0 (11.6) | 64.1 (11.6) | 2.0 × 10−8 | 65.1 (11.7) |
| BMI, median (IQR) | 27.5 (24.2–32.5) | 28.3 (25.4–31.5) | 0.85 | 28.1 (25.0–31.6) |
| Comorbidities | ||||
| Smoking, n (%) | 98 (24.7) | 266 (25.2) | 0.060 | 365 (25.1) |
| Cardiovascular multimorbidity, n (%) | 104 (26.2) | 288 (27.2) | 0.12 | 392 (26.9) |
| Non-cardiovascular multimorbidity, n (%) | 96 (24.2) | 168 (15.9) | 8.0 × 10−3 | 264 (18.1) |
| All multimorbidity, n (%)††† | 217 (54.8) | 507 (48.0) | 0.39 | 727 (49.9) |
| Number of comorbidities, n (%)††† | ||||
| 0 | 77 (19.4) | 244 (23.1) | 0.60 | 321 (22.0) |
| 1 | 102 (25.8) | 306 (28.9) | 408 (28.0) | |
| 2 | 97 (24.5) | 227 (21.5) | 326 (22.4) | |
| 3 | 56 (14.1) | 155 (14.7) | 212 (14.6) | |
| 4–5 | 59 (14.9) | 113 (10.7) | 172 (11.8) | |
| 6–7 | 5 (1.3) | 12 (1.1) | 17 (1.2) | |
| Index NSTE-ACS | ||||
| Raised troponin, n (%) | 378 (95.5) | 1007 (95.3) | 0.91 | 1388 (95.3) |
| Coronary catheterisation, n (%) | 250 (63.1) | 723 (68.4) | 0.49 | 974 (66.9) |
| PCI/CABG, n (%) | 156 (39.4) | 502 (47.5) | 0.082 | 659 (45.3) |
| Cardiovascular drugs at discharge | ||||
| Aspirin, n (%) | 371 (93.7) | 996 (94.2) | 0.82 | 1370 (94.1) |
| P2Y12 inhibitor, n (%) | 334 (84.3) | 899 (85.1) | 0.89 | 1236 (84.9) |
| ACEI/ARB, n (%) | 318 (80.3) | 871 (82.4) | 0.61 | 1191 (81.8) |
| Beta blocker, n (%) | 300 (75.8) | 889 (84.1) | 1.8 × 10−3 | 1192 (81.9) |
| Statin, n (%) | 367 (92.7) | 1006 (95.2) | 0.14 | 1376 (94.5) |
| Patients on all five secondary prevention cardiovascular drugs, n (%)‡ | 205 (51.8) | 630 (59.6) | 0.081 | 837 (57.5) |
| Drug use by category at discharge | ||||
| N = 698‡‡ | n = 208 | n = 490 | n = 698 | |
| Gastro-intestinal, n (%) | 129 (62.0) | 267 (54.5) | 0.18 | 396 (56.7) |
| Cardiovascular, n (%) | 207 (99.5) | 490 (100.0) | 0.99 | 697 (99.9) |
| Respiratory, n (%) | 45 (21.6) | 99 (20.2) | 0.85 | 144 (20.6) |
| Central nervous system, n (%) | 85 (40.9) | 160 (32.7) | 0.026 | 245 (35.1) |
| Infections, n (%) | 17 (8.2) | 33 (6.7) | 0.65 | 50 (7.2) |
| Endocrine, n (%) | 83 (39.9) | 136 (27.8) | 0.012 | 219 (31.4) |
| Nutrition and blood, n (%) | 44 (21.2) | 63 (12.9) | 0.024 | 107 (15.3) |
| Musculoskeletal, n (%) | 36 (17.3) | 65 (13.3) | 0.37 | 101 (14.5) |
| Eye, ear, nose, oropharynx, and skin, n (%) | 10 (4.8) | 28 (5.7) | 0.33 | 38 (5.4) |
| Other, n (%) | 9 (4.3) | 41 (8.4) | 0.017 | 50 (7.2) |
| Numbers of drugs at discharge | ||||
| Number of cardiovascular drugs/patient, median (IQR, range) | 6 (5–6, 0–9) | 6 (5–7, 2–9) | 0.21 | 6 (5–7,0–9) |
| Number of non-cardiovascular drugs/patient, median (IQR, range) | 3 (1–5, 0–15) | 2 (1–4, 0–16) | 0.014 | 2 (1–4, 0–16) |
| Number of drugs/patient, median (IQR, range) | 9 (8–11, 2–22) | 9 (7–11, 3–26) | 0.20 | 9 (7–11, 2–26) |
ACEI angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, ARB angiotensin II receptor blocker, CABG coronary artery bypass graft surgery, IQR interquartile range, n (%) number (percent) of patients, PCI percutaneous coronary intervention, SD standard deviation
†Adjusted for age, except when testing the association between sex and age itself
††The sex of three patients was missing from the n = 1456 cohort; thus, these patients were not included in the sex-stratified columns, but were counted in the All column
†††The age-adjusted p value for the association between sex and all comorbidities was 0.39 when comorbidities were dichotomised into multimorbidity (≥ 2 vs < 2 any cardiovascular or non-cardiovascular conditions) and p = 0.60 when number of comorbidities was treated as an integer count within negative binomial regression
‡Secondary prevention cardiovascular drugs were aspirin, P2Y12 inhibitor, ACEI/ARB, beta blocker, and a statin
‡‡For drug categories within the n = 698 cohort, a patient was counted if they were on one or more drugs within a given category