RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the risk reduction for re-infarction achieved in primary health care centres. STUDY DESIGN: This was a case-control study nested in a cohort of coronary patients. POPULATION: Nine hundred and eighty-five coronary patients, aged less than 76 years who had survived for more than 6 months after their first acute myocardial infarction (AMI), were recruited from two public hospitals in Navarre, Spain. Cases (repeated myocardial infarction, n = 137) and controls (patients with one AMI who had not had a second infarction, [n = 137) who had not been treated with invasive procedures were extracted from this cohort and matched by gender, age, hospital and the secondary prevention time frame. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Re-infarction. RESULTS: In total, 31.4% of cases and 51.8% of controls attended the primary care nurse clinic regularly. This difference accounted for a significant reduction of the risk of re-infarction, even after adjustment for regular visits to the family physician, life styles (smoking, walking habit and dietary changes) and drug treatments (odds ratio: 0.48; 95% confidence interval: 0.26-0.89). A regular schedule of visits to the family physician showed no association with further coronary risk reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Regular attendance of coronary patients at a primary care nurse clinic is associated with a lower risk for re-infarction. Psychological rehabilitation could be the main reason for this benefit, since protection persists after adjustments for other known risk factors.
