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Background: This study investigates the accuracy of the reporting of medication use by proxy- and self-respondents, and it compares the prognostic value of the number of medications from survey and registry data for predicting mortality across self- and proxy-respondents.Methods: The study is based on the linkage of the Longitudinal Study of Aging Danish Twins and the Danish 1905-Cohort Study with the Danish National Prescription Registry. We investigated the concordance between survey and registry data, and the prognostic value of medication use when assessed using survey and registry data, to predict mortality for self- and proxy-respondents at intake surveys.Results: Among self-respondents, the agreement was moderate (κ = 0.52-0.58) for most therapeutic groups, whereas among proxy-respondents, the agreement was low to moderate (κ = 0.36-0.60). The magnitude of the relative differences was, generally, greater among proxies than among self-respondents. Each additional increase in the total number of medications was associated with 7%-8% mortality increase among self- and 4%-6% mortality increase among proxy-respondents in both the survey and registry data. The predictive value of the total number of medications estimated from either data source was lower among proxies (c-statistic = 0.56-0.58) than among self-respondents (c-statistic = 0.74).Conclusions: The concordance between survey and registry data regarding medication use and the predictive value of the number of medications for mortality were lower among proxy- than among self-respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To investigate the relative importance of individual tissue Doppler imaging variables to predict adverse events in a high-risk population with diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, and/or systolic dysfunction. Methods and results Transthoracic echocardiograms were analysed in 388 diabetic patients without significant valve disease, bundle branch block, and atrial fibrillation who underwent coronary angiography. Multivariable Cox's regression analyses were used to establish the association between peak systolic (s′), early diastolic (e′), and late diastolic (a′) tissue velocities and outcomes (hospitalization for heart failure or death). The mean age and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 66 ± 10 years and 45 ± 12%, respectively. During 2.3 (±1.0) years of follow-up, 91 patients (24%) met the combined endpoint. After adjustment for LVEF, coronary artery pathology, heart failure at baseline, age, and gender, each 1 cm/s decrease in s′, e′, and a′ was associated with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.18 (0.89–1.57), 1.03 (0.86–1.22), and 1.20 (1.05–1.37), respectively. A significant interaction was found between s′ and a′, P < 0.01. In patients with lower than mean s′, 1 cm/s decrease in a′ was associated with HR 1.31 (1.10–1.55, P < 0.01), whereas a′ was without prognostic importance in patients with higher than mean s′ [HR 0.99 (0.78–1.25, P = 0.6)]. Patients having lower than mean values of both s′ and a′ had a poorer prognosis than patients having at least one of s′ and a′ high. Conclusion Peak systolic and late diastolic tissue velocities add prognostic information beyond LVEF in high-risk patients. Variables should be considered together as they interact on prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]