Has Statin Use by the Wealthy Created New Social Disparities In Cardiovascular Health?

Since the 1980s, cholesterol levels of the wealthy have declined at twice the rate of those of the poor. Why? A new study suggests that statins, which are expensive drugs that are highly effective in reducing cholesterol and improving heart health, are more widely available to higher income people. Thus, access to statins may have contributed to expanding social disparities in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. 

The study, called Changing Health Disparities and Fundamental Cause Theory:  Fundamental Cause Theory, Technological Innovation, and Health Disparities: The Case of Cholesterol in the Era of Statins was published in the September issue of Journal of Health and Social Behavior and is the work of Virginia W. Chang, MD, PhD, of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania, and Diane S. Lauderdale, PhD, of the University of Chicago.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. However, death from cardiovascular disease has decreased drastically since the 1980s. It is estimated that one-third of this decrease is related to pharmaceuticals, including statins.

As reported in ScienceDaily, Dr. Chang, lead author of the study and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania explains that

[i]ncome disparities in lipid levels have reversed over the past three decades. … High cholesterol was once known as a rich man's disease, because the wealthy had easier access to high fat foods (e.g., red meat). Now wealthy Americans are least likely to have high cholesterol, because they are more likely to be treated with statins, an expensive but highly effective pharmaceutical treatment to lower lipid levels.
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Though statins have a longer-run potential to reduce disparities by making it easier for everyone to lower cholesterol relative to lifestyle changes, they have yet to diffuse widely across all income levels.

[KVT]