Comparison of outcomes of patients with myocardial infarction when living alone versus those not living alone

We examined the effect of living alone before enrollment on short- and long-term outcomes among 2,509 of the 13,095 patients (19%) with myocardial infarction who were enrolled in the GUSTO-III trial of 2 fibrinolytic regimens. Living alone was associated with significantly higher 24-hour (3.8% vs 2.5%), 30-day (9.9% vs 6.5%), and 1-year (15.5% vs 9.8%) mortality, but adjusted mortality rates,at 30 days (chi-square 0.668; p = 0.41) and 1 year (chi-square 0.125; p = 0.72) did not differ significantly.