Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population

Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population

The evaluation of the gender-specific prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors across socioeconomic position (SEP) categories may unravel mechanisms involved in the development of coronary heart disease. Using a sample of 1704 community dwellers of a Portuguese urban center aged 40 years or older,...

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Main Authors: Alves, Luís, Azevedo, Ana, Silva, Susana, Barros, Henrique
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362583/
id pubmed-3362583
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-33625832012-06-04 Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population Alves, Luís Azevedo, Ana Silva, Susana Barros, Henrique Research Article The evaluation of the gender-specific prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors across socioeconomic position (SEP) categories may unravel mechanisms involved in the development of coronary heart disease. Using a sample of 1704 community dwellers of a Portuguese urban center aged 40 years or older, assessed in 1999–2003, we quantified the age-standardized prevalence of nine established cardiovascular risk factors (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, sedentariness, abdominal obesity, poor diet, excessive alcohol intake and depression) across SEP and gender categories. Data on individual education and occupation were collected by questionnaire and used to characterize SEP. The prevalence of seven out of nine well-established risk factors was higher in men. Among women, the prevalence of most of the studied risk factors was higher in lower SEP groups. The main exception was smoking, which increased with education and occupation levels. Among men, socioeconomic gradients were less clear, but lower SEP was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes, excessive alcohol intake and depression in a graded mode. The historical cultural beliefs and practices captured throughout the lifecourse frame the wide socioeconomic gradients discernible in our study conducted in an unequal European developed population. While men were more exposed to most risk factors, the clearer associations between SEP and risk factors among women support that their adoption of particular healthy behaviors is more dependent on material and symbolic conditions. To fully address the issue of health inequalities, interventions within the health systems should be complemented with population-based policies specifically designed to reduce socioeconomic gradients. Public Library of Science 2012-05-29 /pmc/articles/PMC3362583/ /pubmed/22666343 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037158 Text en Alves et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Alves, Luís
Azevedo, Ana
Silva, Susana
Barros, Henrique
spellingShingle Alves, Luís
Azevedo, Ana
Silva, Susana
Barros, Henrique
Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
author_facet Alves, Luís
Azevedo, Ana
Silva, Susana
Barros, Henrique
author_sort Alves, Luís
title Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
title_short Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
title_full Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
title_fullStr Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
title_full_unstemmed Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Prevalence of Nine Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Southern European Population
title_sort socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of nine established cardiovascular risk factors in a southern european population
description The evaluation of the gender-specific prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors across socioeconomic position (SEP) categories may unravel mechanisms involved in the development of coronary heart disease. Using a sample of 1704 community dwellers of a Portuguese urban center aged 40 years or older, assessed in 1999–2003, we quantified the age-standardized prevalence of nine established cardiovascular risk factors (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, sedentariness, abdominal obesity, poor diet, excessive alcohol intake and depression) across SEP and gender categories. Data on individual education and occupation were collected by questionnaire and used to characterize SEP. The prevalence of seven out of nine well-established risk factors was higher in men. Among women, the prevalence of most of the studied risk factors was higher in lower SEP groups. The main exception was smoking, which increased with education and occupation levels. Among men, socioeconomic gradients were less clear, but lower SEP was associated with a higher prevalence of diabetes, excessive alcohol intake and depression in a graded mode. The historical cultural beliefs and practices captured throughout the lifecourse frame the wide socioeconomic gradients discernible in our study conducted in an unequal European developed population. While men were more exposed to most risk factors, the clearer associations between SEP and risk factors among women support that their adoption of particular healthy behaviors is more dependent on material and symbolic conditions. To fully address the issue of health inequalities, interventions within the health systems should be complemented with population-based policies specifically designed to reduce socioeconomic gradients.
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2012
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3362583/
_version_ 1611533071222308864

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