Poor heart attack patients treated differently: study

From EndCanadianPoverty.ca

• Date: February 13th, 2007
• Source: CBC News
• Link to article: Poor heart attack patients treated differently: study

"Poor people are less likely to be treated aggressively after a heart attack than wealthier people, suggests a new study by researchers at the University of Alberta.

The study, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Medicine, also suggests people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who suffer a heart attack enter the emergency department more often but have higher mortality rates a year after an attack.

"We found a clear discrepancy when it comes to socioeconomic status," Dr. Padma Kaul said in a news release.

Kaul is in a group of University of Alberta researchers who tracked 5,622 patients in Alberta. The patients had entered a hospital emergency department with a first heart attack between 1998 and 2002.

"We may have equal access health-care coverage in Canada, but the bottom line is that people may not be getting equal treatment."