Socioeconomic Status and Mortality
Authors: David A. Alter
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2006)

Letters16 May 2006Socioeconomic Status and MortalityDavid A. Alter, MD, PhD, for the SESAMI Study GroupDavid A. Alter, MD, PhDFrom the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada., for the SESAMI Study GroupAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-144-10-200605160-00018 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:We appreciate the comments of Drs. Shishehbor and Litaker. We agree that socioeconomic status is a multidimensional construct of which income serves as only 1 of many social measures. Although such limitations were acknowledged in our paper, our study did adjust for individual education, employment status, ethnicity, and social support. Adjustment for such variables partially accounted for some of the heterogeneous features of socioeconomic status. Furthermore, the inclusion of more elaborative social measures, although intriguing, would not have mitigated the importance of exploring the causal pathway factors that mediate income–mortality associations—associations that have been consistently observed in the ...References1. Kaplan GA, Keil JE. Socioeconomic factors and cardiovascular disease: a review of the literature. Circulation. 1993;88:1973-98. [PMID: 8403348] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Tu JV, Willison DJ, Silver FL, Fang J, Richards JA, Laupacis A, et al. Impracticability of informed consent in the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network. N Engl J Med. 2004;350:1414-21. [PMID: 15070791] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. House JS, Lepkowski JM, Kinney AM, Mero RP, Kessler RC, Herzog AR. The social stratification of aging and health. J Health Soc Behav. 1994;35:213-34. [PMID: 7983335] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Lynch JW, Kaplan GA, Cohen RD, Tuomilehto J, Salonen JT. Do cardiovascular risk factors explain the relation between socioeconomic status, risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and acute myocardial infarction? Am J Epidemiol. 1996;144:934-42. [PMID: 8916504] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: David A. Alter, MD, PhDAffiliations: From the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada.Disclosures: None disclosed. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoSocioeconomic Status and Mortality after Acute Myocardial Infarction David A. Alter , Alice Chong , Peter C. Austin , Cameron Mustard , Karey Iron , Jack I. Williams , Christopher D. Morgan , Jack V. Tu , Jane Irvine , and C. David Naylor , for the SESAMI Study Group*Socioeconomic Status and Mortality Mehdi H. Shishehbor and David Litaker Metrics 16 May 2006Volume 144, Issue 10Page: 782KeywordsAcute myocardial infarctionForecastingHealth services researchMedical risk factorsMedical servicesMortalityRacial and ethnic issuesSocial statusSocioeconomic statusVentilators ePublished: 16 May 2006 Issue Published: 16 May 2006 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2006 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...