Educational inequalities in cardiovascular diseases and their mediating factors across different generations: a prospective cohort study
Authors' conclusion
Educational inequalities in CVD incidence persisted across generations, with potentially greater disparities in 1960s. Implementing effective interventions for healthy lifestyle and metabolic factors that target the less educated population may help reduce these health disparities.
Study context
- Population
- Participants from UK Biobank, divided into four generations born in 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960sparticipants from UK Biobank, mean age 56.10 (8.08) years
- Participants
- 447,227 participants
- Exposure
- Educational inequality on cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke across four generations
- Outcome
- Cases of CVD
- Follow-up
- Median of 13.39 years
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Cases of CVD documented
81 470
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Hazard ratio (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| CVDPrimary school or below vs college education · 1930s · fully adjusted model | 1.03 (0.96–1.11) | |
| CVDPrimary school or below vs college education · 1940s · fully adjusted model | 1.05 (1.03–1.08) | |
| CVDPrimary school or below vs college education · 1950s · fully adjusted model | 1.15 (1.10–1.20) | |
| CVDPrimary school or below vs college education · 1960s · fully adjusted model | 1.37 (1.25–1.51) | |
| 0.512Hazard ratio (log scale) |
Proportion of CVD mediated
- Mediated by healthy lifestyles, across all generations
- 13.36-21.72%
- Mediated by metabolic factors, across all generations
- 30.65-40.70%
- Counterfactual mediation analysis
CHD and stroke
- Similar results were observed for CHD and stroke
Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.
Original publication
Educational inequalities in cardiovascular diseases and their mediating factors across different generations: a prospective cohort study. Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes. Published 27 February 2025. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it