Nyboe C, et al. - Among all adult Danes diagnosed with atrial septal defect (ASD) between 1959–2013 (n = 2,277), researchers assessed the use of permanent social security benefits and work participation over a long-term follow-up, for the first time ever, in this nation-wide cohort study. They compared ASD patients with age and gender-matched general population cohort, in terms of the risk of receiving permanent social security benefits, using Cox proportional hazards regression. Participants were observed over a median duration of 23.4 years (range 0.2-59.3) from ASD diagnosis. Compared with the background population, patients with ASD were found to have a twice as high risk of receiving permanent social security benefits and exhibited reduced work participation score.