Neighborhood quality may affect a person's longevity after heart attack
Black patients from disadvantaged neighborhoods were significantly more likely to die within five years of surviving a heart attack compared with Black heart attack patients from wealthier neighborhoods and white patients of any socioeconomic means who survive a heart attack, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session.
The researchers analyzed data from nearly 32,000 patients with health insurance treated for a heart attack within the Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospital system between 2006-2016. The researchers assigned each patient a neighborhood disadvantage score based on their home address using the Area Deprivation Index, a validated index for assessing neighborhood disadvantage based on 17 variables reflecting education, income, employment and household characteristics.