Own education, current conditions, parental material circumstances, and risk of myocardial infarction in a former communist country

Abstract

Objective-To study the association between own education, adult and parental circumstances and the risk of myocardial infarction in a former communist country. Design-Population based case-control study. Setting-General population of five districts of the Czech Republic in the age group 25-64 years. Participants-Random sample of population (938 men and 1048 women, response rate 77%) served as controls to 282 male and 80 female cases of non-fatal first myocardial infarctions. Main outcome measures-Myocardial infarction was defined by the WHO MONICA criteria based on ECG, enzymes and symptoms. The following socioeconomic indicators were studied: own education, crowded housing conditions (more than one person per room), car ownership, and education and occupation of mother and father. Results-There was a weak correlation between education and car ownership, and a strong association between own education and parental education and occupation. Crowding was not related to other socioeconomic factors. The risk of myocardial infarction was inversely related to education, and was unrelated to material conditions and parental education and occupation. The age-sex-district adjusted odds ratios for apprenticeship, secondary, and university education, compared with primary education, were 0.87, 0.74 and 0.46, respectively (p for trend 0.009); odds ratios for car ownership and crowding were 1.01 (95% confidence intervals 0.77, 1.34) and 0.92 (0.76, 1.12), respectively. Further adjustment for parental circumstances and adult height did not change these estimates but adjustment for coronary risk factors reduced the gradient. Increased height seemed, anomalously, to confer a small increased risk. Conclusions-In this population, the social gradient in non-fatal myocardial infarction is only apparent for own education. Materialist explanations for this gradient seem unlikely but behaviours seem responsible for a part of the gradient.(J Epidemiol Community Health 2000;54:91-96)

Neighbourhood socioeconomic indicators and depressive symptoms in the Czech Republic: a population based study

“…The higher rates of depressive symptoms in unmarried than married people (particularly among widowed individuals), are also consistent with studies in other populations 33 as are the increased rates of depressive symptoms in unemployed individuals 9 . Interestingly, although education was previously found to predict well other health outcomes 34,35 and parasuicide, psychiatric care and completed suicides 36 in Central and Eastern Europe, and although it was strongly associated with depression in the simple models in this study, its effect totally disappeared in the multivariate models. This was largely due to the inclusion of other socioeconomic variables such as deprivation or ownership of household amenities into the model.…”

Occupational diseases in the automotive industry in Czechia – Geographic and medical context

“…The differences in health arise among others as a consequence of different social and economic circumstances [1][2][3][4][5] which include occupational factors. The most serious consequences of an exposure to the occupational risk factors from medical and socio-economic points of view are occupational diseases (OD).…”

Non Clinical Risk Factors of Myocardial Infarction: A Meta-Analysis Approach

“…The risk of developing MI was greatest in individuals with only an elementary school education as compared to higher level education [28]. Personal education and parental education were also strongly associated with the risk of developing MI [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40].…”