Low educational attainment increased the risk of heart disease and death from it
Scientists have found a link between the level of education received early in life and the risk of subsequent cardiovascular disease in adulthood and old age.A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University (USA), led by cardiologist and associate professor of medicine Jared W. Magnani, undertook to test the hypothesis that education can have long-term effects on people's health. Their work was published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
The scientists analyzed data from six previous cohort studies that took place in the United States from 1985 to 2015. They involved more than 40 thousand white and black men and women (average age - about 58 years), initially without cardiovascular disease.
Using modified Kaplan-Meier and Cox models, the researchers estimated the association between education and lifetime risk of heart disease. The analysis took into account competing risks, that is, the probability of death from causes other than heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular pathologies.
It was found that men and women with less than a high school education or who had only completed high school had a 1.4-1.7 times higher risk of cardiovascular disease or death than university graduates. The results were adjusted for age, ethnicity, blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, diabetes, smoking habits and use of hypotensive medications.
It also turned out that people with higher education tended to have pathologies of the cardiovascular system later. Thus, the scientists concluded that a higher level of education is associated with a longer healthy life.
In addition, the analysis revealed that the severity of the association between education and the risk of heart disease or death from them varied by ethnicity. For example, higher education was more protective of heart health for white participants than for black participants. Moreover, black college graduates still had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than people with similar education and white skin color.
Explaining their findings, the medics noted that the level of education can influence people's health literacy and encourage them to lead healthier lifestyles. This helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the world, according to the WHO.
In addition, in the U.S., as in other countries, education is closely intertwined with professional opportunities. Access to general and specialized treatment, material advantages, exposure to environmental and psychological factors depend on this, in turn.
The authors of the research paper emphasized that more attention should be paid to the educational level of the participants when planning clinical trials. This factor and other social determinants of health are often not taken into account, although they can seriously increase the risk of long-term adverse effects on subjects.