Self-rated health among cardiovascular drug users in a study of Swedish twins

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between self-perceived health and cardiovascular disease with and without drug treatment. Mental health and genetic effects were controlled for in the analyses. The data for these analyses were collected in 1984 as part of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA). In the first set of analyses, 1147 persons (mean age 60 years, 72% older than 50 years) were included. In the second part of the study, twin pairs discordant with respect to having a cardiovascular disease and/or drug use were included in the analyses. Cardiovascular disease was related to poor, self-rated health among both men and women. The proportion with bad health was largest among those with a drug-treated disease. In multivariate analyses, a strong relationship between cardiovascular disease, drug therapy and low self-rated health remained after controlling for mental health. The co-twin control analyses indicate that cardiovascular drugs have at most a marginal negative effect on health beyond the effects of the disease and genetic liability to self-perceived poor health.