Neighborhood socioeconomic status, Medicaid coverage and medical management of myocardial infarction: atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) community surveillance.

Background: Pharmacologic treatments are efficacious in reducing post-myocardial infarction (MI) morbidity and mortality. The potential influence of socioeconomic factors on the receipt of pharmacologic therapy has not been systematically examined, even though healthcare utilization likely influences morbidity and mortality post-MI. This study aims to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors and receipt of evidence-based treatments post-MI in a community surveillance setting.

Neighborhood disparities in incident hospitalized myocardial infarction in four U.S. communities: the ARIC surveillance study.

Purpose: Hospital-based surveillance of myocardial infarction (MI) in the United States (U.S.) typically includes age, gender, and race, but not socioeconomic status (SES).

Neighborhood income, health insurance, and prehospital delay for myocardial infarction: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study.

Background: Outcomes following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are generally more favorable if prehospital delay time is minimized.

Methods: We examined the association of neighborhood household income (nINC) and health insurance status with prehospital delay among a weighted sample of 9700 men and women with a validated, definite, or probable AMI in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) community surveillance study (1993-2002). Weighted multinomial regression with generalized estimation equations was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and to account for the clustering of patients within census tracts.

Historical measures of social context in life course studies: retrospective linkage of addresses to decennial censuses.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence of a contribution of early life socioeconomic exposures to the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. However, extant studies investigating the impact of the neighborhood social environment on health tend to characterize only the current social environment. This in part may be due to complexities involved in obtaining and geocoding historical addresses.

Accuracy and repeatability of commercial geocoding.

The authors estimated accuracy and repeatability of commercial geocoding to guide vendor selection in the Life Course Socioeconomic Status, Social Context and Cardiovascular Disease study (2001-2002). They submitted 1,032 participant addresses (97% in Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, or North Carolina) to vendor A twice over 9 months and measured repeatability as agreement between levels of address matching, discordance (%) between statistical tabulation areas, and median distance (d, in meters) and bearing (theta;, in degrees) between coordinates assigned on each occasion (H(o):Sigma(i)( = 1 -->) (n) [theta;(i) /n] = 180 degrees ). They also submitted 75 addresses of nearby air pollution monitors (77% urban/suburban; 69% residential/commercial) to vendors A and B and then measured accuracy by comparing vendor- and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-assigned geocodes using the above measures.

Change in the prevalence of leisure activity with the number of activities recalled.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how the estimated prevalence of leisure activity changed when respondents self-reported up to four activities, compared with using information only from the respondent's one, two, and three most commonly performed leisure activities.

Methods: Information on leisure activities, sociodemographics, and body mass index (BMI) categories was collected in the year 2000 during a telephone interview of 1813 randomly selected adults living in six North Carolina counties. Recommended activity was defined as moderate leisure activity > or =5x wk(-1) for > or =30 min per session or vigorous leisure activity > or =3x wk(-1) for > or =20 min per session.