Prognosis

The risk of dying is increased with psychosocial factors 

• depression ^a
• lack of social support ^a e.g. living alone ^b
• failure to take medication ^b
• education for < 12 years ^b

Why?

Depression, living alone and poor adherence to medication increases the risk of dying

Patient	Prognostic Factor	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNF+ (95% CI)
myocardial infarction a	depression independent	death at 18 months	2.7%	6.06 (1.90 to 19.4)	9 (3 to 44)
myocardial infarction b	living alone independent	recurrent cardiac event at 12 months	12%	1.54 (1.04 to 2.29)	19 (9 to 241)
women with a myocardial infarction b	poor adherence to medication independent	death at 2 years	8.7%	2.4 (1.1 to 5.6)	13 (4 to 180)
myocardial infarction b	education <12 years independent	recurrent cardiac event at 12 months	12%	1.76 (1.24 to 2.50)	16 (9 to 49)