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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
Sure you think about diet and exercise as key to heart disease prevention.
According to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, the incidence of heart disease and associated fatalities are higher for people who live in poor neighborhoods vs. those who live in more affluent areas.
"This is one of the largest studies to date to show that neighborhoods exert a pretty powerful influence on your chance of having a heart attack or stroke," said Marilyn Winkleby, PhD, professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who conducted the study along with colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and UC-San Francisco.
"It's not surprising when you think about the health behaviors related to heart disease and stroke - physical inactivity, poor nutrition, smoking - and think about how neighborhoods can influence these," Winkleby said.
The availability of parks, for instance, or conveniently located markets with fresh produce rather than fast-food restaurants, may make a significant contribution toward differing levels of heart disease, she said.
They found that new cases of heart attacks and stroke were 1.9 times higher for women and 1.5 times higher for men who lived in high-deprivation vs. low-deprivation neighborhoods.
Census data was used to determine the level of neighborhood "deprivation," which was measured by an index of education, income, unemployment and welfare assistance levels.
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Posted on February 14, 2007 09:42 PM
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