Coronary heart disease risk factors and regional deprivation in England: does age matter?

SIR—The potential influence of regional deprivation in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) has rarely been addressed among the older population in England. Most studies on geographical variations have focused on mortality [1, 2] rather than morbidity or concentrated only on particular areas [3–5]. Inequalities in CHD by geographical regions or area of residence are well recognised [6–8]. Given that the risk of CHD increases with age [9, 10] and that the relationship between socioeconomic factors and health varies among different age groups [11, 12], we separately examined the associations of regional deprivation with CHD risk factors accounting for individual measures of social position and health behaviours in late middle age (52–65 years) and older (>65 years). The following biological CHD risk factors were used: body mass index (BMI), waist–hip ratio (WHR), systolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides.