Disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes between urban and rural areas continue to widen, yet nearly half of U.S. counties do not have a practicing cardiologist. According to a new analysis published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, these counties tend to be more rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged, with a greater burden of cardiovascular disease, thus highlighting deep geographic disparity in access to cardiovascular care.
Upon analyzing all 3,143 U.S. counties, it was determined that 1,454 counties (46.3%) with 22 million residents had no cardiologists while the other 1,689 counties each had 24 cardiologists on average.
Other findings included:
86.2% of rural counties had no cardiologists.
Average round-trip distance to nearest cardiologist was 16.3 miles vs 87.1 miles in counties with and without cardiologists.
Compared to counties with cardiologists, counties without cardiologists had:
31% higher cardiovascular risk index
Greater prevalence of all risk factors
Higher age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality rates
One-year shorter life expectancy on average
Counties without cardiologists were more likely to be rural with lower household incomes, greater uninsured levels, worse access to healthy food and primary care clinicians, and experienced more preventable hospitalizations. Of all the racial-ethnic groups examined, Native Americans were the most likely to be living in a county without a cardiologist. Counties lacking a cardiologist were unlikely to be on either coast of the U.S. and those in the South had the highest cardiovascular risk index.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735109724073042?via%3Dihub
