Chest pain one year after a heart attack linked to lower odds of survival

One year post-MI, patients had a follow-up appointment with a physician and were asked to report the severity of any ongoing chest pain they were experiencing. While 38.2% of patients reported moderate pain, another 4.5% reported extreme pain.

The authors then tracked years of follow-up data, determining that 5.8% of patients died up to 8.5 years after those one-year follow-up appointments. All research focused on all-cause mortality, not cardiovascular-specific mortality or any other measures specifically focused on heart health.

Overall, patients in moderate pain one year after a MI were 35% more likely to die during the next 8.5 years than patients with no pain after a MI. Patients in extreme pain, meanwhile, were more than twice as likely to die.

“After a heart attack, it’s important to assess and recognize pain as an important risk factor of future mortality,” Vixner said. “In addition, severe pain may be a potential obstacle to rehabilitation and participation in important heart-protective activities such as regular exercise; reduced or lack of physical activity, in turn, increases risk. For patients with pain, it is of particular importance to reduce other risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.”

Read the full analysis here.