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

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.