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MONDAY, Aug. 18, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- People who live in poverty have a greater risk of suffering complications or dying after having coronary bypass surgery.
The bad news comes from a new British study in the current issue of the journal Heart.
The study included more than 3,500 patients who needed coronary artery bypass grafting at one hospital unit in England between 1996 and 2000.
The researchers examined risk factors such as weight, smoking, diabetes and complications during surgery and weighed those against patient deprivation scores (poverty levels). They found patients with high deprivation (greater poverty) scores tended to be younger and have a greater array of risk factors.
Patients with the highest deprivation scores had higher rates of heart attack and stroke within 30 days of their surgery and were more likely to die than patients with the lowest deprivation scores. Patients with the highest deprivation scores also had longer hospital stays.
Poverty is associated with a greater degree of life stress, social isolation and inadequate access to speedy and/or preventive health treatment, the authors suggest.
More information
Here's where you can learn more about health disparities between the poor and the well-off in the United States.
