This article was originally published in Newsweek on September 20, 2023. Read the full original article here.
Smoking, lack of physical activity, alcohol consumption and excess weight are the main reasons why poorer people are more likely to die from heart disease, according to a study published on Tuesday.
Coronary artery disease, also known as coronary heart disease or ischemic heart disease (IHD), is the most common heart disease—and heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It occurs when sticky plaque builds up in blood vessels, restricting blood flow to the heart and around the body.
The study found that poorer people, from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, are more likely to die from the disease than those with more money and privilege.
“Socioeconomic inequality significantly influences the burden of IHD mortality in the general U.S. population,” study author Yachen Zhu, of the Alcohol Research Group, told Newsweek.
“Our study found that smoking, physical inactivity, alcohol use and BMI [body mass index, a measure of weight in relation to height] together explained more than half of the socioeconomic inequalities in ischemic heart disease mortality in both sexes.”
The results were different for men and women. For men, these factors were more important, explaining an estimated 74 percent of the difference in risk of dying from heart disease between people from different backgrounds.
Smoking was the biggest risk factor for men, linked to 29 percent of heart disease death risk, closely followed by how physically active the men were—27 percent of the risk.