Objective: To compare rates of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and bypass surgery after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients.
Design: Cohort study of public-sector patients who were followed up for 1 year using administrative hospital data.
Participants and setting: We followed up 14 683 public-sector patients admitted to Queensland hospitals for AMI between 1998 and 2002. Of these, 558 (3.8%) identified as Indigenous.
Outcome measures: Rates of PCI and bypass surgery, adjusted for differences between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous cohorts according to age, sex, socioeconomic status, remote residence, hospital characteristics, and comorbidities.
Results: The adjusted rate for PCI during the index admission was significantly lower by 39% (rate ratio [RR], 0.61; 95% CI, 0.38-0.98) among Indigenous versus non-Indigenous patients with AMI; the adjusted rate for subsequent PCI was significantly lower by 28% (RR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54-0.96). Adjusted rates for bypass surgery were similar in the two cohorts. For any coronary procedure (ie, PCI or bypass surgery), the adjusted rate was significantly lower by 22% (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-0.94) among Indigenous patients with AMI. Diabetes, chronic renal failure, pneumonia, and chronic rheumatic fever were at least twice as common among Indigenous patients with AMI as in the rest of the cohort, and chronic bronchitis and emphysema and heart failure were at least 60% more common. If a patient had at least one comorbidity, then their probability of having a coronary procedure was reduced by 40%.
Conclusions: There are likely to be several reasons for the lower rates of coronary procedures among Indigenous patients, but their high rates of comorbidities and the association of comorbidities with lower procedure rates was an important finding. As investment in primary care can reduce the prevalence and severity of comorbidities, we suggest that adequate primary health care is a prerequisite for effective specialist care.