The team of Professor Jidong Sung of Division of Cardiology, Samsung Medical Center, studied the death rates of cardiovascular diseases by comparing income, health checkup history, cause of death, etc. of 178,812 patients between 2002 and 2013.
Among 4.1% of patients who died, 0.9% of them died from cardiovascular diseases. Among 3.6% of high-income patients who died, 0.7% of them died from cardiovascular diseases. The total death rate of the low-income group was 5.5%, and the cardiovascular disease-related death rate was 1.2%. It is thought that the cardiovascular disease-related death rate was increased because the low-income group was affected by risk factors such as smoking and unhealthy diet and did not receive proper preventive measures regarding high hyperlipidemia.
Professor Jidong Sung said, “Cardiovascular disease-related death rates are different based on the income levels. I think that the result implies a welfare policy that relieves the income polarization can have positive effects on the health of the society members.”
This study was published online in June issue of <European Journal of Preventive Cardiology> (IF 4.542/based on the year of 2017), an international academic journal.
