Socio-economic disparity is usually evident in education, occupation and financial status.
Education is a strong surrogate measure of socioeconomic status.
A recent National Health and Nutrition Survey showed a strong inverse relationship between education level and mortality risk.
Men aged 45-64 years, with education of 0-7 years had an almost double the risk of premature mortality than those with 12 or more years of education.
In white women the risk was one and a half times more.
A similar, although weaker, link exists between education and mortality in African American men and women.
Lack of employment and financial status, also have an effect on mortality.
Compared to those who are employed, unemployed men and women, both white and black, have almost one and a half times increased mortality rates.
Service or blue collar workers, usually earning less, almost universally have a higher rate of early death when compared to professional or white collar workers, who relatively earn more.
The relationships mentioned above also apply to cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.
Cardiovascular disease studies have shown that lower levels of education are associated with early heart related mortality.
Liu and colleagues also reported several epidemiology studies from Chicago, confirming the inverse relationship between education level and coronary heart disease.
Similar data emanated from the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly project, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1987.
A steady high income helps pay for education, healthier lifestyle, and access to better medical care.
In the National Longitudinal Mortality Study, both white men and women with incomes less than $5000 had a 1.
8 and 1.
3 times the mortality rate when compared to those with incomes more than $50,000.
These ratios were worse for black men and women (2 and 1.
8 respectively).
The results of the National Mortality Study were published in the American Journal of Public Health in 1995.
Studies have also demonstrated higher cardiovascular mortality in blue collar workers when compared to white collar workers.
Some of this data in women came from the Framingham study and was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1992 by Eaker and associates.
In the Canadian Health, Canada Fitness Survey, and several other studies, people with low income had a higher atherogenic risk profile, with higher rates of smoking, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and excessive alcohol consumption, and the resultant higher cardiovascular disease and death rates.
Lower socioeconomic status is also associated with living in impoverished neighborhoods.
This results in unhealthy food choices, unsafe exercise options, more psychological stress and poor access to optimal health care.
A recent study published in the October 20, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that moving out from these neighborhoods leads to significant health benefits.
In summary, a higher socioeconomic status leads to better life style choices.
Better education appears to confer a higher socio-economic status.
Educated people are more likely to follow healthier lifestyles and acquire skills to ward off adverse health influences.
The ultimate result is improved cardiovascular outcomes including a reduction in premature morbidity and mortality.