Social deprivation is still linked to a higher risk of death from heart disease among young people in Scotland, according to new findings.
The link is probably due to smoking and diet, say the researchers, led by Professor Simon Capewell of Liverpool University, UK.
The team examined mortality rates from coronary heart disease in Scotland from 1986 to 2006.
They found a six-fold difference in mortality between the most deprived to the most affluent groups of adults aged 35 to 44 years. On the website of the British Medical Journal, they report that the difference "diminished with increasing age, but equalised only above 85 years".
Overall, heart disease mortality fell by 61 per cent in men and by 56 per cent in women. But from 1994 onwards, it levelled out among young men and women aged 35 to 44. Rates in men and women aged 45-54 levelled out from about 2003.
"The flattening of coronary heart disease mortality in younger men and women was confined to the two most deprived fifths," say the team. "The flattening of the decline in mortality for coronary heart disease among younger adults may represent an early warning sign.
"These mortality changes reflect social gradients in unhealthy behaviour, lifestyle and circumstances resulting in poor diet and high tobacco consumption leading to unfavourable levels of major coronary heart disease risk factors," they add. "These inequalities are persisting in spite of the widespread and constant health promotion and health prevention initiatives, which suggests substantial and continuing barriers to healthy changes."
Professor Alastair Leyland of the Medical Research Council in Glasgow, suggests it is time "to tackle the social inequalities themselves – unequal distribution of power, money, resources and life chances".
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