Vienna: Poorer people are more likely to have heart attacks

Because poorer neighborhoods have a younger population on average, further research is necessary, they emphasize in the trade journal “BMJ Open”. With a healthy lifestyle, such as a balanced diet and sufficient exercise, the risk of cardiovascular disease – the most common cause of death in Western countries – can be significantly reduced.

But the social environment also influences health. People with a low income often do not eat healthy. And they often live in areas with poorly developed medical infrastructure, such as a lower density of doctors, the scientists report.

Relationship between age and income
Population economist Sonja Spitzer from the Institute of Demography of the University of Vienna, together with colleagues from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the AKH Vienna and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), examined the relationship between the age of heart attack patients and the survival time after heart attacks and the average income in the boroughs of Vienna. For this they used data from the payroll tax statistics, with which they divided the neighborhoods into three categories (high, middle and low average income).

“This is a good way to describe the socioeconomic environment of the districts, because income is closely related to other variables such as education, health care, etc,” Spitzer told the APA. They linked this information to hospital-based observation data of heart attack patients at the AKH and the death registry. This allowed them to examine the survival of nearly 1,500 heart attack patients over a 19-year period (2000 to 2018).

When asked how quickly patients die after a heart attack, there were no differences between the districts. “But a surprising ‘side result’ of our work was that patients from poorer neighborhoods appear to be having heart attacks at a younger age,” Spitzer says. However, further research is needed here as these neighborhoods are also considerably younger. They therefore want to know whether the age of the patients is related to the age structure of the neighbourhoods.

difference of several years
The difference between the low-income neighborhoods (5th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th and 20th arrondissements) and the high-income neighborhoods (1st, 4th, 8th, 13th, 18th, 19th and 23rd arrondissements) was 2.9 years for men and 5.6 years for women.

“If people from poorer districts have a heart attack earlier in life, it’s worrying and should continue to be viewed scientifically and health-politically. The focus here should be on health care and health literacy,” said study co-author Vanessa Di Lego in a statement. broadcast of the OeAW.