Morbid procedures were more commonly reported than morbid diagnoses; 5359 (85.8%) women underwent one or more procedures, and 1255 (20.1%) women had at least one diagnosis indicating an adverse outcome.
Pre-existing conditions reported were: morbid obesity/obesity (n=5, 24%), lung disease (n=4, 19%), heart disease (n=3, 14%), pregnancy (n=3, 14%), diabetes (n=1), immunodeficiency (n=1), cerebral palsy (n=1), prematurity in an infant (n=1) and genetic disorder (mitochondrial disease) (n=1).
The most frequently reported co-morbids were diabetes (23.1%) and ischemic heart disease (25.8%).
Depression and anxiety disorders are commonly reported co-morbid conditions in CWP [ 26, 29, 47, 54- 57].
A number of patients reported co-morbid conditions within the 3 months prior to their participation in the study.
The most commonly reported co-morbid conditions impacting on patient ability to manage CHF were depression (n = 9), diabetes (n = 5), arthritis (n = 3) and asthma (n = 2).
The mean Charlson co-morbidity index score was 5 (sd = 3) points and the most frequently reported co-morbid conditions included 46%% (n = 96) having moderate to severe renal failure and 34%% (n = 72) suffering with dementia.
Nonetheless, we constructed this co-morbidity score (that is based on 17 co-morbid conditions including various chronic pulmonary and other diseases) using a similar approach as demonstrated by Chaudhry et al. [ 30] who found high agreement levels between reported co-morbid conditions and those recorded in administrative datasets.
Exclusion of study participants reporting a morbid condition at baseline, and sensitivity analyses excluding the first 3 years of follow-up limited the chance that reverse causality affected the findings.
