RESEARCH ARTICLE
Socioeconomic Factors and Severity of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography: A Multicentre Study of Arabian Gulf States
Amin Daoulah1, *, Osama E. Elkhateeb2, S. Ali Nasseri3, Mushabab Al-Murayeh4, Salem Al-kaabi5, Amir Lotfi6, Mohamed N. Alama7, Salem M. Al-Faifi8, Mamdouh Haddara9, Ciaran M. Dixon10, Ibrahim S. Alzahrani11, Abdullah A. Alghamdi9, Waleed Ahmed8, Adnan Fathey1, Ejazul Haq1, Alawi A Alsheikh-Ali12
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 11
First Page: 47
Last Page: 57
Publisher ID: TOCMJ-11-47
DOI: 10.2174/1874192401711010047
Article History:
Received Date: 01/02/2017Revision Received Date: 27/02/2017
Acceptance Date: 16/03/2017
Electronic publication date: 28/04/2017
Collection year: 2017

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of death worldwide. The association of socioeconomic status with CAD is supported by numerous epidemiological studies. Whether such factors also impact the number of diseased coronary vessels and its severity is not well established.
Materials and Methods:
We conducted a prospective multicentre, multi-ethnic, cross sectional observational study of consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) at 5 hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Baseline demographics, socioeconomic, and clinical variables were collected for all patients. Significant CAD was defined as ≥70% luminal stenosis in a major epicardial vessel. Left main disease (LMD) was defined as ≥50% stenosis in the left main coronary artery. Multi-vessel disease (MVD) was defined as having >1 significant CAD.
Results:
Of 1,068 patients (age 59 ± 13, female 28%, diabetes 56%, hypertension 60%, history of CAD 43%), 792 (74%) were from urban and remainder (26%) from rural communities. Patients from rural centres were older (61 ± 12 vs 58 ± 13), and more likely to have a history of diabetes (63 vs 54%), hypertension (74 vs 55%), dyslipidaemia (78 vs 59%), CAD (50 vs 41%) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (27 vs 21%). The two groups differed significantly in terms of income level, employment status and indication for angiography. After adjusting for baseline differences, patients living in a rural area were more likely to have significant CAD (adjusted OR 2.40 [1.47, 3.97]), MVD (adjusted OR 1.76 [1.18, 2.63]) and LMD (adjusted OR 1.71 [1.04, 2.82]). Higher income was also associated with a higher risk for significant CAD (adjusted OR 6.97 [2.30, 21.09]) and MVD (adjusted OR 2.49 [1.11, 5.56]), while unemployment was associated with a higher risk of significant CAD (adjusted OR 2.21, [1.27, 3.85]).
Conclusion:
Communal and socioeconomic factors are associated with higher odds of significant CAD and MVD in the group of patients referred for CAG. The underpinnings of these associations (e.g. pathophysiologic factors, access to care, and system-wide determinants of quality) require further study.