The socio-economic distribution of heart diseases: changing gradients in The Netherlands.
Two different Dutch data-sets were used to examine trends in the association between socio-economic characteristics and the risk of heart disease. Data of the Dutch Quality of Life Surveys allowed the examination of trends in the association between educational level and self-reported heart disease during the period 1974-1993. For both the general Dutch population and the subpopulation of men aged 40 years and older, we found an inverse gradient during the whole period. The gradient climaxed at 1980-1983, and narrowed afterwards. Furthermore, ecological analyses, relating regional mean personal incomes to regional directly standardised mortality rates of coronary heart diseases (CHD) and all heart diseases, showed similar patterns of social differentials. The findings suggest that, in the Netherlands, there is a narrowing gradient of the association between socio-economic characteristics and heart disease in the late eighties and early nineties.
Otten
F W
FW
Statistics Netherlands, Department of Sociocultural Household Surveys, Heezlen, The Netherlands.
Bosma
H H
HH
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000401:mortality; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D019456:Health Transition; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000639:trends; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D017678:Sex Distribution