The purpose of this study was to examine the association between lower socioeconomic status (SES), as ascertained by years of education, and outcomes in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Previous studies have shown an inverse relationship between SES and coronary heart disease and mortality. Whether a similar association between SES and mortality exists in STEMI patients is unknown.
We evaluated 11,326 patients with STEMI in the GUSTO-III (Global Use of Strategies to Open Occluded Coronary Arteries) trial study from countries that enrolled >500 patients. We evaluated clinical outcomes (adjusted using multivariate regression analysis) according to the number of years of education completed.
One-year mortality was inversely related to years of education and was 5-fold higher in patients with 16 years of education (17.5% vs. 3.5%, p