Prognostic value of the Rose questionnaire: a validation with future coronary events in the SMART study

Aim: The Rose questionnaire was developed in epidemiological studies to obtain a reproducible diagnosis of angina pectoris. We studied the prognostic value of this questionnaire with respect to the occurrence of future coronary events. Methods and results: We studied 7916 consecutive patients (mean age 56 years; 67% men) with clinically manifest vascular disease or cardiovascular risk factors, enrolled in the Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease (SMART) study from 1996 to 2009. At inclusion, all patients completed the Rose questionnaire. We investigated the prognostic value of four definitions of angina pectoris that were based on the following elements of the questionnaire (1) the full questionnaire; (2) three key questions concerning chest pain; (3) one question about discomfort or pain in the chest; (4) two questions about complaints when slowing down or stopping activities (the definition that is used in the SMART study). All patients were followed for new coronary events and interventions for an average of 4.6 years. Analyses were with multivariable Cox regression models. Discriminatory ability of the four definitions as assessed with areas under the receiver-operator characteristics curves was similar (range 0.708-0.726) for coronary events in isolation as well as in combination with coronary interventions. The models were assessed for their ability to improve risk stratification compared with each other; differences between definitions are small. Conclusion: Our data implicate that the use of a subset of questions of the Rose questionnaire performs equally well compared with the full Rose questionnaire regarding the prediction of coronary events.