Manjushri Sharma
Panjab University, India
Title: Association of socioeconomic indicators with cardiovascular disease risk factors: A case control study in north India
Biography
Biography: Manjushri Sharma
Abstract
Socioeconomic status (SES) has long been known to influence the cardiovascular health of an individual. A number of recent studies have brought out the role of biological, behavioral and psychosocial risk factors that favor the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in socially and economically disadvantaged population, with SES being now labeled as the determinant of the prevalence of risk factors for CVD. This calls for an urgent attention of the health policy makers, especially from the middle and low income countries, so that targeted and cost effective strategies can be drawn out in low resource settings.
This case control study was done to analyses the difference in level of exposure to certain health variables in two groups of respondents, cases being the ones with angiographic ally proven Myocardial Infarction (MI), and controls being the ones without demonstrable MI, with any difference in these two groups assumed to represent an impact of the variable on the outcome. Finally, an attempt was made to draw a statistical association between the socioeconomic statuses of the respondents with the presence of outcome of interest, i.e. MI, and its risk factors. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 20.0 software. The study found significantly higher risk of CVD amongst the respondents belonging to poor SES as compared to those in middle or high SES. Even for modifiable risk factors associated with CVD, the prevalence was found to be significantly higher in poor SES as compared to high SES category respondents for most of the variables.