According to experts, your neighborhood may be a key factor in predicting whether you'll experience long-term survival after your first heart attack. Socioeconomic factors like education, employment, income, community safety, and more have been linked with cardiovascular health. However, impact outcomes of neighborhood factors post-myocardial infraction especially in younger patients haven't been focused on in recent years.
Researchers studied records of more than 2000 patients that experienced myocardial infarction on or before 50-years-of-age. Adjusting data for health factors, neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantages was linked to a 57% increase in cardiovascular mortality rate at roughly an 11-year follow-up.
What is a Myocardial Infarction?
to Harvard Health, myocardial infarction or heart attacks occur when one coronary artery in the heart is suddenly blocked or has sluggish blood flow. The usual causes of blockages in the formation of clots inside the coronary artery that often has been narrowed by fatty deposits along the insides of the blood vessel walls.
Without ample blood flow to the heart, muscles are unable to get the necessary oxygen and nutrients to function properly. Symptoms often include but are not limited to chest discomforts, nausea, heartburn, sweating, and more.
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Relationship Between Disadvantaged Neighborhoods and Heart Attack Mortality
Adam Berman, co-author and cardiology fellow at the Brigham and Women's Hospital explains that the study shows the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantages and accompanying long-term effects of patients that experienced heart attacks at a young age. He adds that when physicians attend to their patients not only should they account for medical conditions but also environmental factors where the patient dwells and the resources available.
The study published in the journal JAMA, entitled "Association of Socioeconomic Disadvantage With Long-term Mortality After Myocardial Infarction" utilized Mass General Brigham's registry in analyzing health outcomes of patients according to census block groups, that are geographically compact regions provide insights into the patient's immediate surroundings.
Each census block researchers determined the Area Deprivation Index which is a standardized scoring system combining 17 census measures such as income, employment, housing, and education.
Patients that were seen in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods more likely to be Black or Latinx that have public insurance or no insurance at all, tend to have increases rates of cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes and hypertension.
Ron Blankstein, senior author, preventive cardiologist, and professor at Harvard Medical School explains that the study depicts that socioeconomic disadvantages are critical to young patients, and will have long-term implications on the person's cardiovascular health.
On the other hand, researchers note that a limitation of the study is that most of the patients were residing in Massachusetts that had robust medical insurance safety nets, which limit the study's generalizability to other states in the country.
Additionally, 74% of the study population was Caucasian. Despite this, researchers were able to show significant associations between mortality rates and ADi scores with higher neighborhood disadvantages with an increase of 32% all-cause mortality and a 57% increase in cardiovascular mortality accounting for relevant comorbidities.
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