Characteristics of 130 325 patients who started allopurinol during the study period, by presence of heart disease
| Characteristic | No. (%) of patients* | Standardized mean difference† | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart disease n = 28 176 | No heart disease n = 102 149 | ||
| Age, yr | 0.80 | ||
| Mean ± SD | 70.2 ± 11.6 | 59.9 ± 14.0 | |
| < 60 | 5401 (19.2) | 48 494 (47.5) | |
| 60–70 | 7301 (25.9) | 27 271 (26.7) | |
| ≥ 70 | 15 454 (54.9) | 26 384 (25.8) | |
| Sex, female | 9328 (33.1) | 27 870 (27.3) | 0.13 |
| Region‡ | 0.21 | ||
| Richmond | 1010 (3.6) | 4574 (4.5) | |
| Vancouver and Fraser North | 9414 (33.4) | 24 994 (24.5) | |
| North Shore and Fraser South | 5687 (20.2) | 20 998 (20.6) | |
| Remainder | 12 065 (42.8) | 51 583 (50.5) | |
| Comorbidities | |||
| Ischemic heart disease | 24 537 (87.1) | 0 | 3.67 |
| Heart failure | 10 076 (35.8) | 0 | 1.06 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 7138 (25.3) | 8736 (8.6) | 0.46 |
| Diabetes | 12 111 (43.0) | 20 759 (20.3) | 0.50 |
| Gout | 18 104 (64.3) | 61 660 (60.4) | 0.08 |
| Medications | |||
| Diuretics | 16 415 (58.3) | 26 124 (25.6) | 0.70 |
| Initial allopurinol dosage > 100 mg/d | 16 333 (58.0) | 66 520 (65.1) | 0.15 |
Note: SD = standard deviation.
↵* Unless stated otherwise.
↵† Standardized mean differences > 0.1 are considered meaningful.
↵‡ Regions are grouped by proportion of Asian people in the population according to data from the 2016 Canadian Census (Appendix 1, available at www.cmaj.ca/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1503/cmaj.190339/-/DC1) and are used here as a surrogate for Asian race, which has the highest prevalence of the HLA-B*5801 polymorphism.