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| Heart disease tied to poverty |
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Multithumb found errors on this page: There was a problem loading image C:\wamp\www\images/stories/08_poverty.jpg  Heart disease is far more likely to kill poor people than the affluent, but it is unknown whether inadequate health care or an unhealthy lifestyle is chiefly to blame, a researcher for the American Heart Association says. Dr. Ralph R. Frerichs, an epidemiologist, says his study shows ''it is not affluence that apparently kills individuals in this case, but poverty.'' The study, made public recently, reported that death rates from heart disease were higher in poorer Los Angeles County neighborhoods than in wealthier ones, and higher among poor blacks than affluent blacks. It also found poor people were more likely than the affluent to die outside a medical facility. Dr. Frerichs said previous studies indicated the poor were less likely to get regular checkups, to have medical insurance and to be able to afford health care, and more likely to delay in getting treatment. While the study did not examine differences in lifestyles among rich and poor, Dr. Frerichs said it was possible the affluent had been quicker than the poor in stopping smoking, reducing fat consumption, controlling hypertension and getting more exercise. The findings were based on analysis of death certificates of all 179,529 Los Angeles County residents who died of all causes from 1979 through 1981. A poor person was defined as having an annual median family income of $13,600 or less, while an affluent person was defined as having family income exceeding $28,501. The study showed that the death rate from heart disease was 40 percent higher for poor men over all than for wealthier ones, while poor women had a 27 percent higher death rate than affluent women. Among blacks, poor men had a 53 percent higher death rate than affluent men, and poor women had a 33 percent higher death rate than wealthier women. (Source: nytimes)   Socialize this Subscribe to our RSS feed to stay in touch and receive all of TT updates right in your feed reader
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