The European Society of Cardiology reports that heart attack survivors who are divorced or have low socioeconomic status have a higher risk of a second attack, according to research from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Previous studies have shown that low socioeconomic status is associated with a first heart attack, but these findings could not be extended to heart attack survivors to calculate their risk of a second event.

This study enrolled 29,226 one-year survivors of a first heart attack from the SWEDEHEART-registry and cross-referenced data from other national registries. Socioeconomic status was assessed by disposable household income (categorised by quintiles) and education level (nine years or less, 10–12 years, more than 12 years). Marital status (married, unmarried, divorced, widowed) was also recorded in the study.

Patients were followed up for an average of four years for the first recurrent event, which was defined as non-fatal heart attack, death from coronary heart disease, fatal stroke, or non-fatal stroke.

The study found that divorce and low socioeconomic status were significantly associated with a higher risk of a recurrent event. Each indicator was linked with recurrent events.

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