Wealth and health link highlighted
Updated on 24 April 2008
A clear link between wealth and health has been highlighted in a study of middle-aged Americans.
Being better off was associated with a significantly lower risk of stroke between the ages of 50 and 64.
Other findings linked a lack of wealth with higher blood pressure, excessive weight, diabetes and heart disease.
Scientists analysed data from 19,445 men and women involved in in the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study which surveys people aged 50 and over every two years.
Over an average period of 8.5, years, a total of 1,542 of the participants suffered a stroke.
The researchers divided the participants' wealth levels into six categories.
They found that the 10% at the bottom of the wealth ladder had three times more stroke risk between the ages of 50 and 64 than those at the top, excluding the "ultra-rich".
However after the age of 65 there was no difference in stroke risk between the two groups.
The researchers made a careful distinction between wealth - the totality of assets a person has - and income.
"Wealth more comprehensively reflects both lifelong earnings and inter-generational transfers, and increases access to medical care and other material and psychosocial resources," said Dr Mauricio Avendando, from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who co-led the research.
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