Education and risk for acute myocardial infarction in 52 high, middle and low-income countries: INTERHEART case-control study

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Abstract
Objective: To determine the effect of education and other measures of socioeconomic status (SES) on risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients and controls from countries with diverse economic circumstances (high, middle, and low income countries). Design: Case-control study. Setting: 52 countries from all inhabited regions of the world. Participants: 12242 cases and 14622 controls. Main outcome measures: First non-fatal AMI. Results: SES was measured using education, family income, possessions in the household and occupation. Low levels of education (⩽8 years) were more common in cases compared to controls (45.0% and 38.1%; pConclusion: Of the SES measures we studied, low education was the marker most consistently associated with increased risk for AMI globally, most markedly in high-income countries.