AHA News: Long-term survival after a heart attack can affect where you live-Consumer Health News

Monday, November 23, 2020 (American Heart Association News)-It’s bad enough to have a heart attack before your 50th birthday. However, new research shows that if you also live in a poor area, you are more likely to die within 10 years of a heart attack.

“This requires us to focus not only on the patient’s medical problems, but on the entire patient, where they live, and the resources they have that enable them to prosper. “I’ll tell you,” said Dr. Adam Berman, principal investigator of the study, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, an educational company at Harvard Medical School.

Berman and his team divided the 2,097 people who had a heart attack before the age of 50 into three groups based on where they lived. They ranked their home addresses using the Deprivation Index, which is a measure of socioeconomic status, including income, education, employment, and housing quality. The study found that the more disadvantaged a neighbor was, the more likely he was to die within 11 years of the first heart attack.

The study was recently presented at a virtual science session of the American Heart Association. It is considered provisional until it is published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Previous studies show that people in disadvantaged areas cannot afford medicine, are exposed to more pollution, and have access to healthy foods and other resources that may improve their health. I know there are few. These social determinants of health have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

“Various neighborhood and individual socio-economic factors are likely to contribute to the underlying mechanism that drives this link between where someone lives and their potential for death,” he said. Stated. “Especially after having a heart attack, especially in the care of young patients, we need to focus on all these aspects.”

Overall, the number of people who have a heart attack is declining in the United States, but for young adults, heart attacks appear to have increased over the last decade. Previous studies have also shown that in black adults in their 30s and 40s, heart attacks are more common and fatal than in young white adults.

New studies show that people who lived in the most disadvantaged areas are more likely to be black or Hispanic, do not have public or health insurance, and have a higher incidence of heart-related risk factors. I did.

However, the study included a relatively small number of women, with nearly 80% of the participants being men. Given the high incidence of heart disease in black women, this is a problem, said Dr. Tiffany Powell Wiley, Head of Obesity and Cardiovascular Risk Institute Social Determinants at the National Institute of Cardiopulmonary Blood. Said. Almost half of all adult black women have some form of heart disease. They have heart disease and are more likely to die at a younger age than their Caucasian peers.

“We need to know what this looks like across gender,” said Powell Wiley, who wasn’t involved in the study. “I think it’s especially important because African-American women are known to be at increased risk of premature cardiovascular death. Therefore, we want to make sure that the data examining this relationship include women. I think.”

Overall, however, health challenges are not only tied to limited resources, she said.

“There are some data showing that mortality is related to the physiological stress of living in these environments. I think that’s where science really needs to go. We’re social and environmental. For cardiovascular events, you really need to dig into the mechanism by which the stressor goes under the skin and guides it. “

For example, Powell-Wiley states, “If you live in these areas, you are more likely to experience racism and discrimination. These are the layers that are influencing you.” ..

Berman and Powell-Wiley agreed that understanding how to mitigate these stressors is a difficult part.

“Now we have to find a way to fix it empirically,” Berman said. “We need to test to see if we can improve access to healthy foods throughout the community or reduce the cost of medicines in the population. That’s a really difficult part. It’s in a meaningful way. How can I fix it? Is it feasible at the healthcare system level? “

Powell-Wiley said the solution should be done at several levels. “Of course, public policy efforts are needed to address inequality and inequality in access to resources, but another problem is that people are actually more resilient to adverse conditions. How to build an intervention to target or support. These are the necessary questions. Interdisciplinary teams. “

American Heart Association News Covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyrighted by American Heart Association, Inc. Owned or owned by, and all rights are reserved. If you have any questions or comments about this story, please email [email protected].

Laura Williamson