Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Original article
Temporal trends in the incidence and recurrence of hospitalised atherothrombotic disease in an Australian population, 2000–07: data linkage study
  1. Lee Nedkoff1,
  2. Thomas G Briffa1,
  3. Matthew Knuiman1,
  4. Joseph Hung2,
  5. Paul E Norman3,
  6. Graeme J Hankey4,
  7. Peter L Thompson2,
  8. Elizabeth Geelhoed5,
  9. Frank M Sanfilippo1,
  10. Siobhan Hickling1,
  11. Alexandra Bremner5,
  12. Michael Hobbs1
  1. 1Cardiovascular Research Group, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
  2. 2School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Unit, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
  3. 3School of Surgery, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
  4. 4School of Medicine and Pharmacology, Royal Perth Hospital Unit, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
  5. 5School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Ms Lee Nedkoff, School of Population Health, M431, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia; lee.nedkoff{at}uwa.edu.au

Abstract

Objectives To examine temporal trends in the incidence and recurrence of hospitalised coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) separately and combined, and by the history of all forms of atherothrombotic disease (ATD).

Design Population-based longitudinal data linkage study.

Setting Western Australia.

Participants All patients aged 35–84 years hospitalised in Western Australia for CHD, CeVD or PAD from 2000 to 2007.

Main Outcome Measures Age-standardised incidence and recurrence rates of CHD, CeVD and PAD stratified by ATD history, sex and age.

Results 107 576 events (65.9% men) were identified; 70% of all admissions were for CHD. In patients without a history of any ATD, incidence rates declined significantly in all groups, although the reduction in incident CHD in women was marginal (−0.7%/year, 95% CI −1.5 to +0.1%). The largest annual reductions in incidence rates were for PAD (men, −6.4%/year, 95% CI −7.7 to −5.0%; women, −5.4%/year, 95% CI −7.2 to −3.6%) and CeVD in women (−4.0%/year, 95% CI −5.0 to −3.0%). Falls in overall recurrence rates were greatest for CeVD (men, −3.2%/year, 95% CI −4.7 to −1.6%; women −4.6%/year, 95% CI −6.4 to −2.7%). Trends across all categories of polyvascular ATD were generally downward, although not all changes were statistically significant.

Conclusion The incidence and recurrence rates of hospitalised ATD have decreased over time, including in patients with disease involving multiple vascular territories. This implies that primary and secondary prevention strategies have been broadly effective. However, high absolute rates of recurrence and limited reduction in 35–54-year-old individuals highlight patient groups to target to reduce further the burden of ATD.

  • Acute coronary syndrome
  • cerebrovascular disorders
  • coronary artery disease
  • coronary heart disease
  • epidemiology
  • myocardial ischaemia and infarction (IHD)
  • peripheral artery disease
  • public health
  • quality of care and outcomes
  • risk factors

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Funding LN is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC); the NHMRC funded the Real and Changing Atherothrombotic Disease Burden and Secondary Prevention project (#572558); the funding body played no role in the study design, analysis or interpretation of data, writing of the report, or of the decision to submit the article for publication.

  • Competing interests None.

  • Ethics approval This study was approved by the ethics committees of the University of Western Australia (RA/4/1/1491) and the WA Department of Health (#2009/18).

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.