Baseline characteristics of the study cohort*
| Characteristic | No. (%) of patients† who did not resume OAC treatment‡ n = 2001 | No. (%) of patients† who resumed OAC treatment§ n = 4792 | Standardized difference¶ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age, yr; median (IQR) | 83 (77–88) | 81 (75–86) | 0.25 |
| Sex, male | 967 (48.3) | 2596 (54.2) | 0.12 |
| Location of index bleed | |||
| Upper GI | 1077 (53.8) | 2682 (56.0) | 0.04 |
| Lower GI | 142 (7.1) | 396 (8.3) | 0.04 |
| Intracranial hemorrhage | 438 (21.9) | 367 (7.7) | 0.41 |
| Other | 344 (17.2) | 1347 (28.1) | – |
| Type of OAC | |||
| Apixaban | 165 (8.2) | 430 (9.0) | 0.03 |
| Dabigatran | 270 (13.5) | 587 (12.2) | 0.04 |
| Rivaroxaban | 494 (24.7) | 973 (20.3) | 0.11 |
| Warfarin | 1072 (53.6) | 2802 (58.5) | 0.1 |
| Indication for OAC** | |||
| Atrial fibrillation | 1476 (73.8) | 4081 (85.2) | 0.29 |
| Venous thromboembolism | 396 (19.8) | 971 (20.3) | 0.01 |
| Prosthetic heart valve | 49 (2.4) | 214 (4.5) | 0.11 |
| Charlson Comorbidity Index, mean ± SD | 2.0 ± 1.9 | 2.0 ± 1.8 | 0.01 |
| CHA2DS2-VASc score, mean ± SD†† | 5.0 ± 1.5 | 5.0 ± 1.5 | 0.01 |
| HAS-BLED score, mean ± SD†† | 3.3 ± 0.7 | 3.3 ± 0.7 | 0.01 |
| Resident of LTC at time of bleed | 299 (14.9) | 320 (6.7) | 0.27 |
| Comorbidity | |||
| Active malignant disease | 96 (4.8) | 161 (3.4) | 0.07 |
| Myocardial infarction | 165 (8.2) | 389 (8.1) | 0.00 |
| Congestive heart failure | 891 (44.5) | 2433 (50.8) | 0.13 |
| Ischemic stroke or TIA | 108 (5.4) | 262 (5.5) | 0.00 |
| Venous thromboembolism | 315 (15.7) | 754 (15.7) | 0.00 |
| Dementia | 452 (22.6) | 696 (14.5) | 0.21 |
| Hypertension | 1776 (88.8) | 4409 (92.0) | 0.11 |
| Chronic kidney disease | 360 (18.0) | 800 (16.7) | 0.03 |
| Diabetes | 794 (39.7) | 2053 (42.8) | 0.06 |
Note: GI = gastrointestinal, IQR = interquartile range, LTC = long-term care, OAC = oral anticoagulant, SD = standard deviation, TIA = transient ischemic attack.
↵* The presentation of OAC exposure is for descriptive purposes only; in the analysis, we treated it as a time-varying measure.
↵† Unless specified otherwise.
↵‡ Did not resume OAC within 365 days of index bleed.
↵§ Resumed OAC within 365 days of the index bleed.
↵¶ We considered a standardized difference greater than 0.1 to be significant.
↵** Percentages do not add to 100% because patients may have had multiple indications for OAC.
↵†† Patients with atrial fibrillation only.