Outcomes
apoplexy, death, PAD
MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, EVENT, APOPLEXY, PAD, REGRESSION
The primary outcome in this analysis was death from any cause. Secondary, we investigated the impact of air pollutants and of proximity to major roads on the combined endpoint of death from any cause and cardio-vascular morbidity. The latter was defined as a new event of myocardial infarction, apoplexy, coronary or carotid revascularization.The third endpoint was defined as the time to the first occurrence of PAD not yet detected at baseline. This was defined as amputation, peripheral revascularization, or occurrence of necrosis/gangrene of the affected limb during the observation period. In addition, PAD was assumed, if the ABI fell below the threshold of 0.9 during the course of the study. Because the follow-up examinations were performed at fixed time points (1, 3, 5, and 7 years after baseline), and thus information for the time between the examination time points was missing, a progression curve was generated for the ABI by regression. If this curve had an intersection with the value 0.9 or if a new PAD symptom occurred, the event occurring first was used to calculate the event-free time to adequately reflect the incidence of PAD [