Socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular disease: a review of the literature
- PMID: 8403348
- DOI: 10.1161/01.cir.88.4.1973
Socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular disease: a review of the literature
Abstract
Despite recent declines in mortality, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States today. It appears that many of the major risk factors for coronary disease have been identified. Researchers are still learning about different modifiable factors that may influence cardiovascular diseases. Socioeconomic status may provide a new focus. The principal measures of SES have been education, occupation, and income or combinations of these. Education has been the most frequent measure because it does not usually change (as occupation or income might) after young adulthood, information about education can be obtained easily, and it is unlikely that poor health in adulthood influences level of education. However, other measures of SES have merit, and the most informative strategy would incorporate multiple indicators of SES. A variety of psychosocial measures--for example, certain aspects of occupational status--may be important mediators of SES and disease. The hypothesis that high job strain may adversely affect health status has a rational basis and is supported by evidence from a limited number of studies. There is a considerable body of evidence for a relation between socioeconomic factors and all-cause mortality. These findings have been replicated repeatedly for 80 years across measures of socioeconomic level and in geographically diverse populations. During 40 years of study there has been a consistent inverse relation between cardiovascular disease, primarily coronary heart disease, and many of the indicators of SES. Evidence for this relation has been derived from prevalence, prospective, and retrospective cohort studies. Of particular importance to the hypothesis that SES is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease was the finding by several investigators that the patterns of association of SES with coronary disease had changed in men during the past 30 to 40 years and that SES has been associated with the decline of coronary mortality since the mid-1960s. However, the declines in coronary mortality of the last few decades have not affected all segments of society equally. There is some evidence that areas with the poorest socioenvironmental conditions experience later onset in the decline in cardiovascular mortality. A number of studies suggest that poor living conditions in childhood and adolescence contribute to increased risk of arteriosclerosis. Some of these studies have been criticized because of their nature, and others for inadequate control of confounding factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Similar articles
-
Exploring the association between low socioeconomic status and cardiovascular disease risk in healthy Greeks, in the years of financial crisis (2002-2012): The ATTICA study.Int J Cardiol. 2016 Nov 15;223:758-763. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.08.294. Epub 2016 Aug 20. Int J Cardiol. 2016. PMID: 27573601
-
Socioeconomic status during childhood and health status in adulthood: the Wrocław growth study.J Biosoc Sci. 2007 Jul;39(4):481-91. doi: 10.1017/S0021932006001799. Epub 2007 Jan 5. J Biosoc Sci. 2007. PMID: 17207293
-
Haemostatic and other cardiovascular risk factors, and socioeconomic status among middle-aged Finnish men and women.Int J Epidemiol. 1995 Dec;24(6):1110-6. doi: 10.1093/ije/24.6.1110. Int J Epidemiol. 1995. PMID: 8824851
-
Evaluating the evidence for models of life course socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review.BMC Public Health. 2005 Jan 20;5:7. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-5-7. BMC Public Health. 2005. PMID: 15661071 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Environmental and individual exposure and the risk of congenital anomalies: a review of recent epidemiological evidence.Epidemiol Prev. 2018 May-Aug;42(3-4 Suppl 1):1-34. doi: 10.19191/EP18.3-4.S1.P001.057. Epidemiol Prev. 2018. PMID: 30066535 Review. English.
Cited by
-
Multidimensional Poverty and Risk of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: A U.S. National Study.JACC Adv. 2024 May 15;3(7):100928. doi: 10.1016/j.jacadv.2024.100928. eCollection 2024 Jul. JACC Adv. 2024. PMID: 39130022 Free PMC article.
-
Sex Differences in the Relationship Between Self-Reporting of Snoring and Cardiovascular Risk:An Analysis of NHANES.Nat Sci Sleep. 2024 Jul 16;16:965-977. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S467516. eCollection 2024. Nat Sci Sleep. 2024. PMID: 39050367 Free PMC article.
-
Viral cardiovascular surgical diseases: global burdens, challenges and opportunities.Future Cardiol. 2024 Mar 11;20(4):229-239. doi: 10.1080/14796678.2024.2348382. Epub 2024 May 17. Future Cardiol. 2024. PMID: 39049768 Review.
-
Low income and education are associated with greater ASCVD risk scores among adults in the US.Prev Med Rep. 2024 Apr 7;41:102720. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102720. eCollection 2024 May. Prev Med Rep. 2024. PMID: 38623580 Free PMC article.
-
Does education modify the association between depression and cardiovascular health? (from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, 2013-14 and 2015-16).Am Heart J Plus. 2021 Oct 26;11:100062. doi: 10.1016/j.ahjo.2021.100062. eCollection 2021 Nov. Am Heart J Plus. 2021. PMID: 38549740 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous