Health Status Predicts Mortality and Hospital Admissions 6-years Later Among Cardiac Patients Attending General Practice

Abstract

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.