Health Status Predicts Mortality and Hospital Admissions 6-years Later Among Cardiac Patients Attending General Practice
M. Byrne1, P. Gillespie1, E. Murphy1, M.E. Cupples2, S.M. Smith3, A.W. Murphy1
1National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
2Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
3Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
Background: Patient rated health status may be a useful risk stratification tool to effectively target secondary prevention behavioural programmes to patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: We examined the relationship between baseline patient rated health status (SF-12) and health outcomes (mortality (n 748); hospital admissions (n 588)) at 6 year follow up among primary care patients with CHD, using multivariate analysis and controlling for confounding variables. At 6 years, outcome data were collected from practice records and postal questionnaire. Findings: At follow-up, the odds ratio (OR) for a one point improvement in baseline SF-12 mental component score for mortality was 0.97 (95% CI 0.95-0.99; p 0.03) and for hospital admissions was 0.98 (95% CI 0.96-0.99; p 0.04). The OR for a one point improvement in the SF-12 physical component score for mortality was 0.97 (95% CI 0.95-0.99; p 0.04); for hospital admissions the OR was 0.99 (95% CI 0.98-1.01; p 0.06).Discussion: SF-12 scores independently predicted significant health outcomes at 6 years and may help in targeting secondary prevention interventions effectively.