Education and income: Risk factors for cardiovascular disorders

Neuruppin, 20 November 2024

Social inequality is a problem in many societies with implications for quality of life as well as health. A recent study reveals a strong correlation between education, income and the risk of cardiovascular disorders. David Füller, MHB alumnus from the third cohort of medical students (Humanmedizin) and currently resident physician at the department of cardiology, angiology, pneumology, nephrology and internal intensive care / Universitätsklinikum Brandenburg an der Havel, presented a poster on a new study at the Scientific Sessions 2024 in Chicago between 15 and 18 September 2024. The study explores the impact of socio-economic factors on cardiovascular diseases, in accordance with the issues addressed at the event. The scientific congress hosted by the American Heart Association, one of the largest conferences in the field, gives an annual comprehensive overview of latest advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular illness.

Füller: “Our latest study examines the impact of education and income on three frequent and serious cardiovascular disorders, i.e. on the risk of stroke, occlusion of coronary vessels and of leg arteries. We found that lower levels of education or of income were associated with a risk of such diseases comparable to better known risk factors such as diabetes or smoking.” The study comprising almost 400,000 test subjects from the United Kingdom Biobank suggested an immediate and strong influence on the risk for selected cardiovascular disorders that was independent of factors like place of residence or pre-existing risk factors. According to Füller, the impact of these two factors is comparable to, and sometimes even stronger than that of other factors that we tend to know more about.   

The poster abstract is online available here. David Füller sees the study as a first important step for the well-established differences in the prevalence of cardiovascular disorders to be related to the socio-economic determinants of health, to be recognized and described in studies, to be structurally recorded in clinical practice and considered in therapy.

Participants in this collaboration project – others are scheduled to follow - are the Brandenburg team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. med. Oliver Ritter, professor of internal medicine and cardiology, and the Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Emory University in Atlanta, GA, USA. A publication of findings from the study is in the planning stage.  David Füller gives thanks to support for the project received from various sides: MHB research funding, an Early Career Investigator Travel Grant from the American Heart Association (AHA) and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR) of 1000 Euro/US-Dollar respectively and the Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award for the best abstract/poster at the congress submitted from Germany.