Comparison of Primary and Secondary Prevention Groups
Baseline demographic characteristics, comorbid diseases of the
population demonstrated in Table 1 . There were no significant
differences between the two groups in terms of age, place of residence,
the prevalence of a chronic pulmonary disease, or hepatic failure.
However, patients in the secondary prevention group were more likely to
be male, had a higher prevalence of DM, heart failure, hyperlipidemia,
tobacco, and alcohol use. Primary prevention group patients had a higher
prevalence of hypertension and atrial fibrillation compared to patients
in the secondary prevention group. HASBLED scores were higher in the
secondary prevention group (Table 1) . While 45.9% of the
patients with a HASBLED score> 2 were on proton pump
inhibitor (PPI), 40.8% of HASBLED≤ 2 were on PPI (p= 0. 010).
Aspirin treatment was initiated most frequently by cardiologists
(n=4167, 83.2%), followed by specialists of internal medicine (n=265,
5.3%) and neurology (n=259, 5.2%). Aspirin was used more often in
secondary prevention than primary prevention by cardiologists and
cardiovascular surgeons (Fig 1 ). Other specialists prescribed
aspirin mainly for primary prevention.