Trial Outcomes & Findings for Treatment Convenience in Patients Treated With Dabigatran for Stroke Prophylaxis in Atrial Fibrillation (SPAF) (NCT NCT02839746)

The data collection periods: * When planned to be switched from vitamin K antagonists (VKA) to Pradaxa® (At baseline, Visit 1) * 7 to 124 days after starting treatment with Pradaxa® (initiation period, Visit 2) * 125 to 365 days after starting treatment with Pradaxa® (continuation period, Visit 3) Questionnaire (quest.)

All participants were screened for eligibility to participate in the study. Participants attended specialist sites which would then ensure that all participants met all inclusion/exclusion criteria. Participants were not to be entered if any one of the specific entry criteria were not met.

Treatment Convenience in Patients Treated With Dabigatran for Stroke Prophylaxis in Atrial Fibrillation (SPAF)

The PACT-Q is self-administered quest. which was developed as means to investigate patients' satisfaction with anticoagulant treatment \& treatment convenience in patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE) or atrial fibrillation (AF). PACT-Q2 quest. is made up of two domains: (1) Convenience (13 items): This domain is calculated by adding inverted scores (6-item score) for each of the 13 items in question \& converting to a scale from 0 to 100. (2) Satisfaction with the anticoagulant treatment (7 items): This domain is calculated by adding scores for each of the 7 items in question \& converting to a scale from 0 to 100. The missing items have been replaced by the mean of non-missing items of the dimension (if 50% of items were completed, non-missing), in order to calculate domains score. The higher the score, the higher the convenience/satisfaction. The two domain scores are presented for Baseline, Visit 2 (second assessment) as mean \& standard deviation (SD).

The PACT-Q is self-administered quest. which was developed as means to investigate patients satisfaction with anticoagulant treatment \& treatment convenience in patients with deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE) or atrial fibrillation (AF). The PACT-Q2 quest. is made up of two domains: 1) Convenience (13 items): This domain is calculated by adding inverted scores (6-item score) for each of the 13 items in question, \&converting to a scale from 0 to 100. 2) Satisfaction with the anticoagulant treatment (7 items):This domain is calculated by adding scores for each of the 7 items in question, \& converting to a scale from 0 to 100. The missing items have been replaced by the mean of non-missing items of the dimension (if 50% of items were completed, non-missing), in order to calculate domains score. The higher the score, the higher the convenience/satisfaction. The two domain scores are presented for Baseline, Visit 3 (last assessment) as mean and standard deviation (SD).

The PACT-Q is self-administered quest. which was developed as means to investigate patients satisfaction with anticoagulant treatment \& treatment convenience in patients with DVT, PE or AF. The PACT-Q2 quest. is made up of two domains: 1) Convenience (13 items): This domain is calculated by adding inverted scores (6-item score) for each of the 13 items in question, \&converting to a scale from 0 to 100. 2) Satisfaction with the anticoagulant treatment (7 items):This domain is calculated by adding scores for each of the 7 items in question, \& converting to a scale from 0 to 100. The missing items have been replaced by the mean of non-missing items of dimension (if 50% of items were completed, non-missing), in order to calculate domains score. The higher the score, the higher the convenience/satisfaction. The two domain scores are presented for Visit 2( second assessment), Visit 3 (last assessment) as mean and standard deviation (SD).

CHA2DS2-VASc stroke risk score is calculated based on following conditions: Congestive heart failure/left ventricular dysfunction, Hypertension, Age (≥ 75), Diabetes Mellitus,Stroke/Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA)/thromboembolism,Vascular disease (history of myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease or aortic plaque) ,Age 65-74, Sex category. HAS-BLED bleeding risk score is calculated based on following conditions: Uncontrolled hypertension with Systolic Blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 160 mmHg,Kidney failure,liver failure,History of stroke,History of bleeding, anaemia or predisposition to bleeding,Unstable/high or poor international normalized ratio (INR) (\<60% of time within therapeutic range),Elderly (\>65 years),Medications that affect haemostasis,Consumptions of ≥8 alcoholic drinks per week.CHA2DS2-VASc stroke risk score \& HAS-BLED bleeding risk score range from 0 to 9 with 0 being outcome with low stroke risk for CHA2DS2-VASc and being with low bleeding risk for HAS-BLED.

Categorical parameters of the patient characteristics at baseline included age, Risk factors associated with stroke and/or haemorrhage in the medical history (MH), co-morbidities (CoMo), concomitant medication (CM) and dosing of Pradaxa® (DoP). Haemorrhagic risk (HAS-BLED) is categorized as Low risk (score 0), Moderate risk (score 1-2) and High Risk (score ≥3). Thromboembolic risk (CHA2DS2-VASc) is categorized as Low risk (score 0 in male and 1 in female), Moderate risk (score 1 in male and 2 in female) and High Risk (score ≥2 in male and ≥3 in female). Stages of kidney disease are categorized based on Cockcroft-Gault review as below: No kidney failure (\> 80 ml/min), Mild kidney failure (50-80 ml/min), Moderate kidney failure (30-49 ml/min), Severe kidney failure (15-29 ml/min) and End-stage kidney failure/dialysis (\< 15 ml/min).

Creatinine clearance at baseline is a measure of the patient's kidney function and is one of the baseline patient characteristics.

Vitamin K Antagonist (VKA) treatment duration is one of the baseline patient characteristics.

Categories of reasons for switching from VKAs to Pradaxa® are as below: 1. Hypersensitivity (Hypersensitivity to the drug) 2. Intracranial haemorrhage (Patients with a history of intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) (except during the acute phase) in whom the benefits of anticoagulation were deemed to outweigh the risk of haemorrhage) 3. Ischaemic stroke (Patients with ischaemic stroke who present clinical and neuroimaging criteria indicating a high risk of ICH) 4. Arterial thromboembolic episodes (Patients undergoing treatment with VKAs, suffering from severe arterial thromboembolic episodes despite good INR control) 5. INR not in range (Patients who have started treatment with VKAs in whom it is not possible to keep the INR in range (2-3) despite good therapeutic compliance) 6. INR management (Lack of access to conventional INR management) 7. Pts decision (Patient's decision) 8. Others. A single patient may have specified more than one reason

Reasons for for changing the dose of Pradaxa®: 150 mg/bid to 110 mg/bid are categorized as below: 1\] High risk of bleeding 2\] Moderate renal failure 3\] \>80 years 4\] Other reason

Reasons for for changing the dose of Pradaxa®: 110 mg/bid to 150 mg/bid are categorized as below: 1\] High risk of bleeding 2\] Moderate renal failure 3\] \>80 years 4\] Other reason

Reasons for no longer receiving Pradaxa® treatment categorized as below: 1. Treatment change (Change of treatment (by patient or by investigator) 2. Adverse event (Diarrhea, gastrointestinal discomfort, rectorrhagia, dyspepsia) 3. Exitus 4. Others