Education level and outcomes after acute myocardial infarction in China

Abstract

Objective: To assess the association between educational attainment and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) outcomes in China to inform future healthcare interventions.

Methods: We used data from the China Patient-centred Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events-Prospective AMI study of 3369 consecutive patients hospitalised with AMI from 53 hospitals. Educational attainment was categorised as: high (senior high school, college or postgraduate degree), intermediate (junior high school) or low (primary school or illiterate). We used survival models to assess the relationship between education and 1-year major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), all-cause mortality, both unadjusted and after adjustment for demographic characteristics and cardiovascular risk factors.

Results: The median participant age was 61 (52, 69) years, 23.2% were women, and 33.3% had high, 32.4% intermediate and 34.3% low educational attainment. In unadjusted analysis, compared with high educational attainment, low educational attainment was associated with a higher 1-year risk of MACE (HR 2.41, 95% CI 1.72 to 3.37) and death (HR for low vs high education 3.09, 95% CI 1.69 to 5.65). In risk-adjusted analyses, the association between education and death was attenuated and no longer statistically significant (adjusted HR 1.41, 95% CI 0.74 to 2.69, p=0.30). However, the risk of 1-year MACE (adjusted HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.18 to 2.41, p=0.004) remained significantly greaterin low educational attainment group.

Conclusions: In a national Chinese cohort of patients hospitalised with AMI, low educational attainment was associated with a higher risk of adverse events in the year following discharge. This association highlights the need to consider interventions to improve AMI outcomes in adults with low levels of education.

Clinical trial registration: NCT01624909; Results.

Keywords: acute myocardial infarction; quality and outcomes of care.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: HMK is the recipient of a research grant from Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson, through Yale University, to develop methods of clinical trial data sharing; chairs a cardiac scientific advisory board for United Health; works under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to develop and maintain performance measures that are publicly reported; is a participant/participant representative of the IBM Watson Health Life Sciences Board; is a member of the Advisory Board for Element Science and the Physician Advisory Board for Aetna; and is the founder of Hugo, a personal health information platform. FAM receives salary support from the American College of Cardiology for his role as the Chief Science Officer of the National Cardiovascular Data Registries. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

Figures

Figure 1

Flowchart of the study cohort. AMI, acute myocardial infarction.

Figure 2

Unadjusted Kaplan-Meier curve. (A) Unadjusted Kaplan-Meier curve: 1-year all-cause mortality by educational attainment. (B) Unadjusted Kaplan-Meier curve: 1-year MACE by educational attainment. MACE, major adverse cardiovascular events.