An index of unhealthy lifestyle is associated with coronary heart disease mortality rates for small areas in England after adjustment for deprivation

Journal article

Indices of socio-economic deprivation are often used as a proxy for differences in the health behaviours of populations within small areas, but these indices are a measure of the economic environment rather than the health environment. Sets of synthetic estimates of the ward-level prevalence of low fruit and vegetable consumption, obesity, raised blood pressure, raised cholesterol and smoking were combined to develop an index of unhealthy lifestyle. Multi-level regression models showed that this index described about 50% of the large-scale geographic variation in CHD mortality rates in England, and substantially adds to the ability of an index of deprivation to explain geographic variations in CHD mortality rates.

Authors: Scarborough, P; Allender, S; Rayner, M; Goldacre, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Health & Place
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 691-695
• Publication date: 2011-03-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.12.007
• ISSN: 1353-8292
• Language: English
• Keywords: cholesterol; synthetic estimates; blood pressure; small area analysis; fruit and vegetable consumption; coronary disease; obesity; smoking; deprivation
• Subjects: Public Health