SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONS HOSPITALIZED IN SASKATCHEWAN BECAUSE OF HEART DISEASE INVOLVING THE CORONARY ARTERIES.

A retrospective study was designed to determine the background characteristics of 9562 patients hospitalized in Saskatchewan during the calendar years 1958-1959-1960 with a discharge diagnosis of heart disease specified as involving the coronary arteries. The study illustrates the limitations of retrospective analyses, but points out that such analyses may highlight presumptive relevant variables in the search for causes of diseases with multiple possible interacting origins. Single persons, and in particular single females, were significantly much less susceptible than were persons who were married or who had been married. This is a previously unreported finding, to the authors' knowledge. Residents of farms and hamlets were hospitalized significantly less often than were village, town or city residents; it is suggested that this may corroborate the findings of Morris and others who feel that the physical activity of work may be a relevant variable in the etiology of coronary heart disease.