Association of increasing age with receipt of specialist care and long-term mortality in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction

Zaman, M. Justin, Fleetcroft, Robert, Bachmann, Max ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1770-3506, Sarev, Toomas, Stirling, Susan, Clark, Allan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2965-8941 and Myint, Phyo Kyaw (2016) Association of increasing age with receipt of specialist care and long-term mortality in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. Age and Ageing, 45 (1). pp. 96-103. ISSN 0002-0729

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Abstract

Background: observational studies suggest that older patients are less likely to receive secondary prevention medicines following acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Objectives: to examine the association of increasing age with receipt of specialist care and influence of specialist care on long-term mortality in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Design: a cohort study. Setting: National ACS registry of England and Wales. Subjects: a total of 85,183 patients admitted with NSTEMI between 2006 and 2010. Methods: logistic regression analyses to assess receipt of secondary prevention medicines (ACE inhibitor, β-blocker, statin, aspirin) by age group; multivariate Cox regression models to examine longitudinal effect of cardiologist care on all-cause mortality by age group. Results: mean age 72.0 years (SD 13.0 years), mean follow-up was 2.13 years. Older patients received less cardiologist care (70.2% of NSTEMI patients ≥85 years compared with 94.7% of patients <65) years and had more co-morbidity. Cardiologists prescribed more secondary prevention in all age groups than generalists, but this was mostly explained away by co-morbidity (receipt of statin crude OR 1.51 (1.27,1.80), fully adjusted OR 1.11 (0.92,1.33) in patients ≥85 years). Receiving cardiologist care compared with generalist care was associated with a decreased risk of death in all even after adjustment for co-morbidity, disease severity and secondary prevention; this benefit reduced incrementally with older age group (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.58 (0.49,0.68) aged <65; 0.87 (0.82,0.92) aged ≥85). Conclusion: older patients with NSTEMI were less likely to see a cardiologist, but reduced treatment by generalists was explained away by co-morbidity. Cardiologist care was associated with lower mortality in all age groups than a generalist, but this survival benefit was less pronounced in older patients.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: acute coronary syndrome,older people,quality of health care,survival
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 20 Jan 2016 11:00
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2023 01:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/56696
DOI: 10.1093/ageing/afv162

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