Abstract
Background: We investigated the association between income-education groups and incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in a national prospective cohort study. Methods: The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study recruited 30,239 black and white community-dwelling adults between 2003 and 2007 and collected participant-reported and in-home physiologic variables at baseline, with expert adjudicated CHD endpoints during follow-up. Mutually exclusive income-education groups were: low income (annual household income <$35,000)/low education (< high school), low income/high education, high income/low education, and high income/high education. Cox models estimated hazard ratios (HR) for incident CHD for each exposure group, examining differences by age group. Results: At baseline, 24,461 participants free of CHD experienced 809 incident CHD events through December 31, 2011 (median follow-up 6.0 years; interquartile range 4.5-7.3 years). Those with low income/low education had the highest incidence of CHD (10.1 [95 % CI 8.4-12.1]/1000 person-years). After full adjustment, those with low income/low education had higher risk of incident CHD (HR 1.42 [95 % CI: 1.14-1.76]) than those with high income/high education, but findings varied by age. Among those aged <65 years, compared with those reporting high income/high education, risk of incident CHD was significantly higher for those reporting low income/low education and low income/high education (adjusted HR 2.07 [95 % CI 1.42-3.01] and 1.69 [95 % CI 1.30-2.20], respectively). Those aged ≥65 years, risk of incident CHD was similar across income-education groups after full adjustment. Conclusion: For younger individuals, low income, regardless of education, was associated with higher risk of CHD, but not observed for ≥65 years. Findings suggest that for younger participants, education attainment may not overcome the disadvantage conferred by low income in terms of CHD risk, whereas among those ≥65 years, the independent effects of income and education are less pronounced.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1312 |
| Journal | BMC public health |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 29 2015 |
Funding
The REGARDS study was supported by cooperative agreement U01NS041588 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute R01 HL080477. Additional funding was provided by a supplemental grant R01 HL080477-06 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to Ms. Lewis. Dr. Safford was provided a grant K24 HL111154 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and an investigator-initiated grant-in aid from Amgen Corporation. These sources of funding had no role in the design of the study or in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors thank other REGARDS investigators, staff, and participants for their contributions. A full list of participating REGARDS investigators and institutions can be found at http://www.regardsstudy.org and http://www.regardssepsis.org. Dr. Safford receives funding from Amgen Corporation to study patterns of statin use in Medicare and other large databases review large databases; diaDexus, salary support for a research grant on lipids and coronary heart disease outcomes; diaDexus, consulting to help with US Food and Drug Administration application; and NIH and AHRQ, salary support for research grants. The listed organizations did not have any role in the design and conduct of the study; in the collection, management, data analysis, and interpretation of the data; or in the preparation or approval of the manuscript. There are no other reported conflicts of interest.
Keywords
- Coronary heart disease
- Education
- Health disparities
- Income
- Myocardial infarction
- Risk factors
- Social determinants of health
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
