The Role of Socio-economic Indicators in the Causation of Coronary Artery Disease

South Asian countries have a high prevalence of coronary heart disease (CAD) in line with their economic development. In these countries, we find nearly one quarter of the total world population in the process of nutritional transition, from poverty to affluence due to rapid economic development. India; in particular, with a population of over one billion has a high burden of CAD. To evaluate the role of socioeconomic and demographic variables on the coronary artery disease. A hospital based case-control study was conducted to investigate the role of social related risk factors on coronary artery disease (CAD) in an urban area of East Delhi from April 2002 to December 2004. To obtain more validate comparisons, a control group also was selected from community of East Delhi. The tools of enquiry were a pre-tested and pre-coded questionnaire, physical examination and laboratory testes. A confidence level of 95% and study power of 80% were considered for the interpretation of possible significant findings. Sexwise stratified analysis was separately done for male and female subjects. Comparison of male cases with their counterparts in both control groups indicated that the majority of them had significantly a college education, higher monthly income, semi or full professional occupations and were living in families with size of more than 9. The similar results was found for female cases as that majority of them as compare to females in both control groups were literate, employed and belonging to families with income levels of more than RS.8000. In addition, belonging to religion other than Hindus was another significant variable that was accounted for as risk for getting CAD. Our findings indicate that both male and female cases belonging to high socio-economic classes had higher chance for getting CAD as compare to their counterparte.