- The study analyzed data from nearly 32,000 heart attack patients.
- The results revealed that people living in under-resourced neighborhoods were 5 percent more likely to die of any cause within 5 years after a heart attack.
- Experts say physicians need to take into account a person’s neighborhood when releasing them from the hospital.
Black people from under-resourced neighborhoods are significantly more likely to die within 5 years of surviving a heart attack than Black people from wealthier neighborhoods and white people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, according to a recent study by researchers from Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
The study, which was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 70th Annual Scientific Session this month, analyzed data from nearly 32,000 heart attack patients with health insurance who were treated within the Kaiser Permanente Southern California hospital system between 2006 and 2016.
The researchers assigned each patient a neighborhood disadvantage score based on their home address using the Area Deprivation Index, which assesses neighborhood disadvantage based on 17 variables, including education, income, employment, and household characteristics.
Source: healthline