MONDAY, Jan. 7, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac arrest, and stroke are associated with substantial loss in employment and earnings at three years postevent, according to a study published online Jan. 7 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

Allan Garland, M.D., from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the Canadian Hospitalization and Taxation Database, which contains linked hospitals and income tax data from 2005 to 2013. Difference-in-differences analyses were performed for matched patients (aged 41 to 60 years) admitted to a hospital for acute MI, cardiac arrest, or stroke and controls who were not admitted for these indications. The primary outcome was working status three years postevent.

The researchers found that for MI, cardiac arrest, and stroke, fewer patients who were admitted to the hospital were working three years postevent compared with controls (by 5, 12.9, and 19.8 percentage points, respectively). The mean earning declines attributable to the events were $3,834, $11,143, and $13,278 for MI, cardiac arrest, and stroke, respectively. Greater effects on income were observed for patients with lower baseline earnings, comorbid disease, longer hospital length of stay, or need for mechanical ventilation.

“Our findings add individual-level details to the current understanding of the economic consequences of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease,” the authors write.

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