Impact of area deprivation on the cardiac mortality in the UK between 1991 and 2010: evidence from a population-based longitudinal study

Aim: Evidence from longitudinal studies on the influence of area deprivation in cardiac mortality is limited. We aimed to examine the impact of area deprivation on cardiac mortality in a large representative Scottish population. We also examined differences between women and men. Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed by using linked data from Scottish Longitudinal Study from 1991-2010. The main exposure variable was socioeconomic status (SES) using the Carstairs deprivation scores, a composite score of area-level factors. Cox proportional-hazards models were constructed to evaluate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for cardiac mortality and all-cause mortality associated with area-based deprivation. Subgroup analyses were stratified by sex. Results: In a representative population of 217,965 UK adults, a total of 58,770 deaths occurred over a median of 10 years of follow-up period. The risk of cardiac mortality and all-cause mortality showed a consistent graded increased across the deprived groups. Compared to the least deprived group, the adjusted HR of cardiac mortality in the most deprived group was 1.27 (1.15-1.39,