Where you Live Matters!

Heart Failure Risk Increases in a Low-income Neighborhood

​Location is of primary importance when we lookout for an apartment. We want our apartment to be located in the heart of the city, near supermarkets and restaurants but quite away from the polluted roads. This same location plays a central role in heart failure risk. A highly renowned journal study has found that the neighborhood in which you reside contributes to almost 5% of heart failure risk.

Location, Location, Location
The characteristics of your residence play a pivotal role in influencing heart failure risk beyond the regular risk factors such as an individual’s cardiovascular health, income and educational qualification. We already have proofs linking socioeconomic factors as a predictor for chronic disease.

The study involved 27,078 middle-aged participants, 50% of whom were living in lower-economic communities. They were split into three groups starting from the least-deprived to the most-deprived category. Most of the participants’ annual income was minimal, many were obese and did not even complete their high-school education. These participants were monitored for 5 years and during this period, 4,300 of them were diagnosed with heart failure and almost 5% of the heart failure risk in such deprived communities is a result of the surrounding factors. Read more on health factors that trigger a heart failure at www.firsteatright.com. 

It is agreeable that nurture than nature molds a person’s personality traits and character. This environment does affect our health. The surprise element here is the extent to which neighborhood characteristics impact heart failure risks. Researchers hope that physicians realize this impact and look beyond the regular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity. They also hope that these results send the right message to public health sector people such that they can take much more vigorous action to implement safer environment and community health resources.
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Further, people need to become more neighborhood-conscious and take steps to keep their surrounding heart-friendly. Improved community-level resources can definitely decrease the risk of heart failure in these communities. Look beyond the books and medicines. Understand that you need to look past an individual’s living conditions too as where you live matters a lot!