Can heart failure risk depend on where you live?

A new study suggests that the risk of developing heart failure also depends on where we live.

The research compared census tract data on socioeconomic deprivation - a clustering of neighborhood-level variables of wealth, education, occupation and housing patterns - and heart failure rates among 27,078 middle-aged whites and African-Americans from the Southeastern states.

Researchers grouped the participants (average age 55, 69 percent African-American, 63 percent women) in three groups ranging from the least-deprived to the most-deprived neighborhoods. During an average follow-up of more than five years, 4,300 participants were diagnosed with heart failure.

Researchers noted that residents living in more socioeconomically deprived areas were at the highest risk for heart failure.

As neighborhood socioeconomic factors worsened between one group to the next, researchers noted a 12 percent increase in risk of heart failure. After adjusting for other factors, researchers say 4.8 percent of the variance in heart-failure risk was explained by neighborhood factors.

"There is existing evidence suggesting strong, independent associations between personal socioeconomic status - like education, income level and occupation - and risks of heart failure and many other chronic diseases," said Loren Lipworth, the study's co-senior author.

"But what this study adds is evidence suggesting that characteristics of your place of residence, actually also play a significant role in influencing the risk of heart failure over and above the role of your own individual socioeconomic characteristics," she said. "It opens the door for possible interventions that center on preventive measures in the community."

Study participants were from the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS) - an ongoing prospective investigation of cancer and other chronic conditions in a largely resource-limited, underinsured group of recruits in 12 Southeastern states.

More than 50 percent of the participants studied lived in the most deprived neighborhoods. Seventy percent of residents studied earned less than $15,000 a year.

Researchers suggest residents may benefit most from improvements in community resources such as exercise facilities, healthy food outlets and medical facilities.

"Increased and improved access to community-level resources could mitigate cardiovascular disease risk factors like obesity, hypertension and diabetes," said Elvis Akwo, first author of the study.

"Improved community-level resources may ultimately reduce the risk of heart failure in these communities."

The focus on public policy and prevention may have the greatest potential to mitigate the burden of cardiovascular disease and improve overall health, researchers said.

An accompanying editorial by Wayne Rosamond Ph.D.; M.S. and Anna Johnson, Ph.D.; MSPH, said this research adds an important aspect to our understanding of the role of neighborhood in health by focusing on low-income neighborhoods.

"By conducting this study in a predominantly low socioeconomic status (SES) population, the potential for bias from individual SES is reduced, allowing for a direct interpretation of associations of neighborhood aspects with heart failure incidence," Rosasmond and Johnson wrote.

The findings have been published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.