Posted as supplied by author.

Appendix Patient Characteristics Excluding Cardiac Surgery*

		Atenolol	Metoprolol
		(n=20,776)	(n=12,013)
Age (years)	£ 69	29	26
	70 to 74	33	32
	75 to 79	26	28
	³ 80	11	14
Gender	female	53	48
	male	47	52
Social status quintile�	lowest	20	20
	next lowest	22	22
	middle	20	19
	next highest	17	17
	highest	18	18
	missing	4	4
Medication in prior year�	ACE inhibitor	33	32
	allopurinol	7	7
	antidepressant	10	9
	benzodiazepine	21	21
	bronchodilator	5	6
	calcium channel blocker	27	28
	digoxin	6	9
	furosemide	8	9
	glaucoma eye drops	6	7
	glucocorticoid	4	4
	gastric acid suppressor	23	25
	insulin	2	3
	levothyroxine	11	11
	neuroleptic	2	2
	oral anticoagulant	8	9
	oral antiplatelet agent	1	2
	oral hypoglycemic	9	12
	statin	19	20
Surgery type	thoracic	2	2
	abdominal	26	26
	retroperitoneal	2	1
	vascular	10	11
	neurosurgical	2	2
	external head and neck	3	3
	unclassified�	1	0
	lower urologic or gynecologic	20	20
	orthopedic	25	23
	breast or skin	6	5
	ophthalmologic	4	5