The association between socioeconomic status and subclinical atherosclerosis in a rural Bangladesh population (original) (raw)

2017, Preventive medicine

In Bangladesh, CVD accounts for the majority of non-communicable mortality. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of socioeconomic status (SES) on subclinical atherosclerosis measured as carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) in a rural Bangladesh population. Carotid IMT was measured between 2010 and 2011 in 1022 participants (average age 46, 40% male) randomly selected from the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS), a population-based prospective cohort study based in rural Bangladesh. SES was measured as occupation type, land ownership, educational attainment, and television ownership. Half of the participants received formal education (53%) and under half owned land (48%) and a television (44%). Women were primarily homemakers (95%) and men worked as factory workers (24%), laborers (18%), or in business (55%). In univariate analysis, those owning greater than one acre of land (p=0.03), owning a television (p=0.02), or laborers and business owners compar...