Descriptive statistics of study population in Ontario, Canada, 1996–2013
| Characteristics | Cardiovascular-related hospitalisations | |||
| CHD | AMI | Stroke | Ischaemic stroke | |
| n=1 389 057 | n=443 447 | n=355 837 | n=237 979 | |
| Demographic characteristics | ||||
| Age, mean (IQR), year | 66.5 (64–82) | 68.5 (58–80) | 71.0 (64–82) | 73.0 (66–83) |
| Men | 65.9 | 63.2 | 50.8 | 50.4 |
| First-time hospitalisation* (%) | 37.7 | 70.2 | 72.6 | 78.9 |
| Comorbidity† (%) | ||||
| AMI | 26.3 | 24.4 | 6.2 | 6.8 |
| Cardiac dysrhythmias | 13.8 | 12.2 | 14.6 | 16.0 |
| Congestive heart failure | 13.4 | 14.6 | 9.4 | 10.7 |
| Diabetes | 21.6 | 19.8 | 16.8 | 18.4 |
| Hypertensive disease | 30.7 | 25.8 | 27.4 | 28.6 |
| Medication‡ (%) | ||||
| Statin | 45.9 | 33.3 | 27.0 | 25.6 |
| Antihypertensive medication§ | 79.1 | 68.7 | 62.4 | 63.5 |
| ACE inhibitors | 41.2 | 36.8 | 33.0 | 33.3 |
| Beta blockers | 48.1 | 35.4 | 28.4 | 29.4 |
| Oral anticoagulants | 9.3 | 8.9 | 11.7 | 11.0 |
*Defined as whether a patient was hospitalised for the first time for each condition.
†Ascertained using the records of hospitalisations from the selected conditions (based on all diagnostic codes) within 5 years before the hospitalisations under investigation.
‡Prescribed within 90 days prior to hospitalisations. The medication data were only available for subjects aged 65 years and above.
§Includes ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta blockers and calcium chann.
AMI, acute myocardial infarction; CHD, coronary heart disease.