Single living and/or being unmarried increases the risk of having a heart attack and worsens its prognosis both in men and women regardless of age. Most of the excess mortality appears already before the hospital admission and seems not to be related to differences in treatment of ACS.

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The attack rate of ischaemic stroke was lower among Swedish-speaking than among Finnish-speaking men. This difference was not totally explained by the higher SES of the Swedish-speaking population.

BackgroundThe prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is growing as the population is ageing. However, data on the clinical characteristics of elderly OSA patients and their adherence to positive airway pressure (PAP) treatment are scarce.MethodsData of 23,418 30–79-year-old OSA patients prospectively collected into the ESADA database during the period 2007 to 2019 were analysed. Information on PAP use (h·day−1) in association with a first follow-up visit was available for 6547 patients. The data was analysed according to ten-year age-groups.ResultsThe oldest age-group was less obese, less sleepy, and had a lower AHI compared to middle-aged patients. The insomnia-phenotype of OSA was more prevalent in the oldest age group than in the middle-aged group (36%, 95% CI 34–38versus26%, 95% CI 24–27, p<0.001). The 70–79-year-old group adhered to PAP therapy equally well as the younger age groups with a mean PAP use of 5.59 h·day−1(95% CI 5.44–5.75). PAP adherence did not differ between clinical phenotypes based on subjective daytime sleepiness and sleep complaints suggestive of insomnia in the oldest age-group. A higher score on the Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI-S) scale predicted poorer PAP adherence.ConclusionThe elderly patient group was less obese, less sleepy, had more insomnia symptoms, and less severe OSA, but rated to be more ill compared with the middle-aged patients. Elderly OSA patients adhered to PAP therapy equally well as the middle-aged. Low global functioning (measured by CGI-S) in the elderly patient predicted poorer PAP adherence.