The impact of social deprivation on coronary revascularisation treatment outcomes within the National Health Service in England and Wales

There is strong evidence to suggest that social deprivation is linked to health inequalities. In the UK, concerns have been raised regarding disparities in the outcomes of acute cardiac services within the National Health Service (NHS). This study explored whether differences exist in (a) elective hospital presentation time (b) indicators of severity and disease burden and (c) treatment outcomes (hospital stay and mortality) on the basis of the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) status.

This study was a retrospective analysis of data from NHS databases for 13,758 patients that had undergone cardiac revascularisation interventions at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital between April 2007–March 2012.

The data was analysed by descriptive, univariate and multivariate statistics to explore the association between the IMD quintiles (Q1–Q5) and revascularisation type, elective presentation time, hospital length of stay and mortality.

Univariate analysis indicated that there were significant differences between patients from the most deprived areas (Q5) compared with patients from the least deprived areas (Q1), these included admission volumes, time before presentation to hospital and proportion of non-elective cases. After risk-adjustments, percutaneous coronary intervention patients from Q5 compared with Q1 had significantly greater length of hospital stay and risk of in-hospital major acute cardiovascular events. After multivariate adjustment for baseline risk factors, patients from Q5 were associated with significantly worse five-year survival as compared with Q1 (hazard ratio (HR) 1.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.36–1.71; p < 0.001). In conclusion, there is evidence to suggest that inequalities in cardiac revascularisation choices and outcomes in the UK may be associated with social deprivation.