Baseline characteristics of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and the general population comparators with no prior 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases code indicating arrhythmia
| Patients with SSc | General population comparators | |
| N | 1565 | 16 009 |
| Age at start of follow-up, years, mean (SD) | 57.6 (14.7) | 57.9 (14.8) |
| Follow-up, years, median (IQR) | 4.9 (6.7) | 6.2 (7.1) |
| Sex | ||
| Women, n (%) | 1274 (81%) | 12 973 (81%) |
| Men, n (%) | 291 (19%) | 3036 (19%) |
| Age at start of follow-up (years), n (%) | ||
| 18–49 | 458 (29%) | 4613 (29%) |
| 50–59 | 357 (23%) | 3612 (22%) |
| 60–69 | 411 (26%) | 4149 (26%) |
| 70+ | 339 (22%) | 3635 (23%) |
| Baseline comorbidities*, n (%) | ||
| Diabetes | 85 (6%) | 977 (7%) |
| Hypertension | 514 (37%) | 3558 (25%) |
| Heart failure | 60 (4%) | 144 (1%) |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 91 (7%) | 619 (4%) |
| Asthma/COPD | 330 (24%) | 2662 (19%) |
| Renal disease | 63 (5%) | 358 (3%) |
*Baseline comorbidities were identified in only participants with index date starting from 1 January 2006 (1393 patients with SSc and 14 246 matched comparators) since data from the drug register are available starting from 1 July 2005.
COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.