Abstract 310: Neighborhood Socioeconomic Context Predicts Cardiac Rehabilitation Participation Above and Beyond Individual Socioeconomic Status

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is underutilized in the United States, with less than 20% of eligible patients participating in CR programs. Individual socioeconomic status is associated with CR utilization, but the effect of neighborhood socioeconomic context on CR use has not been described. We investigated the association of CR participation with neighborhood socioeconomic context in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). Methods: The SCCS is a prospective cohort study of 84,569 largely poor adults in the southeastern United States, of which 52,117 participants have Medicare or Medicaid claims. Using these claims data, we identified SCCS participants with hospitalizations for myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass surgery or cardiac valve surgery and ascertained their CR utilization. Neighborhood socioeconomic context was assessed using a previously validated neighborhood deprivation index. This index was derived using 11 census-tract level variables including median household value and percentage of households with public assistance income. We used multivariable-adjusted logistic and Cox regression to evaluate the association of CR participation with neighborhood socioeconomic context and mortality. Results: A total of 4456 SCCS participants (56% female, 59% Black) were eligible for CR at a mean age of 60.5 + 9.1 years and an average of 4.0 + 2.5 years after study enrollment. CR utilization was low as expected, with 308 subjects (6.9%) participating in CR programs. CR participation is inversely associated with all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39-0.70, p=<0.0001) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality (HR 0.38, 95% CI 0.22-0.65, p=<0.001) after multivariable adjustment. Neighborhood socioeconomic context is strongly associated with CR participation after adjustment for individual socioeconomic status (educational level and household income) as well as rural status (Table). Conclusions: Neighborhood socioeconomic context predicts CR participation in addition to individual socioeconomic status. These data invite research on interventions to increase CR access in deprived communities.