“Contrary to common belief, this suggests that improving socioeconomic standing may improve outcomes for black and white patients globally but is unlikely to eliminate racial disparities in health,” Bucholz added. Emily Bucholz of Boston Children’s Hospital said by email. “We found that socioeconomic status did not explain the racial disparities in life expectancy after a heart attack,” lead study author Dr. But in high-income communities, the gap widened to a life expectancy of seven years for white people and 6.3 years for black individuals.
On average, across all ages, white patients in low-income areas lived longer after a heart attack – about 5.6 years compared with 5.4 years for black patients. They used postal codes to assess income levels in patients’ communities.Īfter 17 years of follow-up, the overall survival rate was 7.4 percent for white patients and 5.7 percent for black patients, according to the results published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers evaluated data on more than 132,000 white heart attack patients and almost 9,000 black patients covered by Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled.
After a heart attack, black patients typically don’t live as long as whites – a racial difference that is starkest among the affluent – according to a new U.S.