Socio-economic and behavioral «portrait» of patients with myocardial infarction

Abstract

Aim. To identify the specifics of socioeconomic status and behavioral patterns in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) compared with the data of regional epidemiological study participants.Material and methods. The study included participants aged 35–70 years permanently residing in the Kemerovo city or Kemerovo region. The study group consisted of patients with MI (n = 60), and the comparison group consisted of clinical and epidemiological study participants (the study was conducted by the Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases in 2015–2020 (n = 752). After matching, the study group included 28 patients; the comparison group included 428 participants. The data were collected using a questionnaire to identify the characteristics that determine the socioeconomic and behavioral «portrait» of the participants, their health status. Food Frequency Questionnaire was used to assess how often each food item was consumed over a specified period of time. International Questionnaire on Physical Activity was used to measure health-related physical activity of the subjects.Results. All participants (with MI and from the epidemiological study) display negative behavior patterns that greatly increase the risk of experiencing cardiovascular events. However, patients with MI had a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the medical history (p = 0.044), prior MI, peripheral arterial disease (p = 0.001); obesity was noted less frequently (p = 0.014). Patients with MI were more likely to be prescribed antihypertensive drugs (p = 0.001), at the time of the survey they were more likely to be active (p = 0.017) and passive (p = 0.001) smokers. Alcohol consumption at the time of the survey was noted more frequently in patients with MI (p = 0.040), while the majority of respondents from the general population did not consume alcohol (p = 0.038). Patients with MI were less likely to display low physical activity at work 7 days prior to hospitalization (p = 0.001). Simultaneously, patients with MI were less likely to consume cooked and seasonal vegetables, seasonal fruits (p = 0.001). Moreover, patients with MI were more likely to incorporate fatty (p = 0.003) and low-fat dairy products (p = 0.001), lean (p = 0.013) and fatty meat (p = 0.036) in their diet.Conclusion. The established patterns of behavior in patients with MI and in the general population of the Kemerovo region do not differ significantly. A large number of people residing in Russia routinely makes unhealthy lifestyle choices, however, several «pro-atherogenic» characteristics can be identified in patients with MI.