Comparison of long-term mortality between living alone patients versus living together patients with acute coronary syndrome treated with percutaneous coronary intervention

AIMS: Living alone is reported as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about the association between clinical outcomes and living alone in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The aim of this study was to determine whether living alone is an independent prognostic risk factor for long-term mortality stratified by age in patients with ACS who were treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted an observational cohort study of ACS patients who underwent PCI between January 1999 and May 2015 at Juntendo University Shizuoka Hospital, Japan. The primary endpoint was all-cause death. Among 2,547 ACS patients, 381 (15.0%) were living alone at the onset of ACS. The cumulative incidence of all-cause death was comparable between living alone and living together (34.8% vs. 34.4%, log-rank p = 0.63). However, among younger population (aged <65 years), the incidence of all-cause death was significantly higher in the living alone group (log-rank p = 0.01). Multivariate Cox hazard analysis revealed a significant association between living alone and all-cause death, even after adjusting for other risk factors (hazard ratio 2.30, 95% confidence interval 1.38-3.84, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Although living alone was not significantly associated with long-term clinical outcomes in patients with ACS, it was a predictive risk factor among younger ACS patients. Careful attention should be paid to patients' lifestyle, especially younger patients with ACS.