Socioeconomic status and coronary heart disease

Iran has undergone a remarkable demographic transition over the last three decades. Socioeconomic status (SES) indicators including education, income, and occupation are associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, morbidity, and mortality. The aim of the present study was to describe demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, their association to the diseases, and to explore the predictive risk of CHD in Tabriz, the fourth largest city in Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to explore and analyze the current SES status of CHD patients. The study was conducted in Tabriz and all patients (n=189) refereed to the Central Referral Hospital for cardiac patients (Shahid Madani Hospi-tal) from 2009 to 2010 were considered. A researcher structured questionnaire with 15 ques-tions was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic SES fea-tures of the CHD patients and data analysis was done using SPSS ver. 16.

Less educated participants were more susceptible to CHD. Regarding to occupa-tional status, housewives and retired men were in higher risk of CHD than the rest of the peo-ple.  Studied patients also reported to be mostly from urban areas that were living in apart-ment complexes.

In line with some international research evidence the study results suggested that people from lower/middle social classes were in greater CHD risk than higher social classes.  This epidemic might be halted through the promotion of healthier lifestyles and the support of environmental and policy changes.