Patient-reported health as a prognostic factor for adverse events following percutaneous coronary intervention

OBJECTIVE: A relation may exist between self-reported health and adverse events in coronary heart disease. Previous studies have been vulnerable to possible selection bias. In the study reported here, we examined the association between self-rated health and adverse events in terms of cardiac events, cardiac readmissions, and all-cause mortality in a complete cohort of patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A cohort of patients with coronary heart disease treated with PCI was followed up with questionnaires 4 weeks after PCI to measure self-rated health and in registers to identify adverse events. Of 1,752 eligible patients under 67 years, 26 died during the first 4 weeks. A total of 224 patients were excluded from the analysis because they were readmitted with a cardiac diagnosis before answering the first questionnaire. We received complete SF-12 Health Survey component summaries from 984 of the remaining 1,502 patients. We used multiple imputation to establish a complete cohort, including nonrespondents. RESULTS: During follow-up, 83 patients died, 220 patients experienced a new cardiac event, and 526 patients experienced a hospital readmission related to coronary heart disease. Poor self-rated health was related to cardiac events, cardiac readmission, and all-cause mortality. The associations were stronger for all-cause mortality than for events and readmissions. Physical health was more important than mental health, but both revealed an exposure–response pattern. CONCLUSION: Poor self-reported health within 4 weeks of PCI was associated with adverse outcomes during up to 5 years’ follow-up.