Background Despite increased awareness of the importance of early treatment in acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the delay from symptom onset to hospital arrival is still too long and rehospitalisations are frequent. Little is known about how health-related quality of life (HRQL) affects delay time and the frequency of readmissions.

Method We used quality registers to investigate whether patients’ HRQL has any impact on delay time with a new AMI, and on the rate of readmissions during the first year. Patients with AMI <75 years, with HRQL assessed with EQ-5D at 1-year follow-up, and who thereafter had a new AMI registered, were evaluated for the correlation between HRQL and delay time (n=454). The association between HRQL and readmissions was evaluated among those who had an additional AMI and a new 1-year follow-up registration (n=216).

Results Patients who reported poor total health status (EQ-VAS ≤50), compared to those who reported EQ-VAS 81–100, had tripled risk to delay ≥2 h from symptom onset to hospital arrival (adjusted OR 3.01, 95% CI 1.43 to 6.34). Patients scoring EQ-VAS ≤50 had also a higher risk of readmissions in the univariate analysis (OR 3.08, 95% CI 1.71 to 5.53). However, the correlation did not remain significant after adjustment (OR 1.99, 95% CI 0.90 to 4.38). EQ-index was not independently associated with delay time or readmissions.

Conclusions Aspects of total health status post-AMI were independently associated with delay time to hospital arrival in case of a new AMI. However, the influence of total health status on the risk of readmissions was less clear.