Highlights
- •The quality of stroke prevention therapy might be influenced by healthcare setting.
- •Guideline adherent therapy was not adequate in secondary and tertiary hospitals.
- •Inappropriate therapy was more prevalent in secondary than tertiary hospitals.
- •Special attention should be paid to decrease undertreatment in secondary hospitals.
- •Strategies to prevent overtreatment should be developed in tertiary hospitals.
Abstract
Objective
No studies have been conducted in Turkey to compare the quality of stroke prevention
therapies provided in different healthcare settings in patients with atrial fibrillation
(AF). Therefore, we aimed to evaluate possible differences between secondary (SH)
and tertiary hospital (TH) settings in the effectiveness of implementing AF treatment
strategies.
Methods
Baseline characteristics of 6273 patients with non-valvular AF enrolled in the RAMSES
(ReAl-life Multicentre Survey Evaluating Stroke Prevention Strategies in Turkey) study
were compared.
Results
Of the study population, 3312 (52.8%) patients were treated in THs and 2961 (47.2%)
patients were treated in SHs. Patients treated in the SH setting were older (70.8 ± 9.8 vs. 68.7 ± 11.4 years, p < 0.001), had a lower socioeconomic status, had a higher CHA2DS2VASc and HASBLED scores (3.4 ± 1.4 vs. 3.1 ± 1.7, p < 0.001 and 1.7 ± 1.0 vs. 1.6 ± 1.1, p < 0.001 respectively), and had more comorbidities than patients treated in THs. Inappropriate
oral anticoagulant use was more prevalent in SHs than THs (31.4% vs. 25.6%, p < 0.001). When over- and undertreatment rates were compared among hospital types, overtreatment
was more prevalent in THs (7.6% vs. 0.9%, p < 0.001) while undertreatment was more common in SHs (30.5% vs. 17.9%, p < 0.001).
Conclusion
This study demonstrates the marked disparity between patient groups with AF presenting
at SHs and THs. The use of guideline-recommended therapy is not adequate in either
type of centre, overtreatment was more prevalent in THs and undertreatment was more
prevalent in SHs.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 24, 2017
Accepted:
February 16,
2017
Received in revised form:
January 19,
2017
Received:
September 23,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
