Living with heart disease--the working-age population.

OBJECTIVES This article compares the socioeconomic and health characteristics of the household population aged 35 to 64 with and without self-reported heart disease. DATA SOURCES Information on the prevalence of heart disease is from the household component of Statistics Canada's 1996/97 National Population Health Survey. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES Weighted estimates of the health, health care utilization and socioeconomic characteristics of people aged 35 to 64 were calculated by sex and self-reported heart disease. Logistic regression was used to adjust for age and lest for statistical significance. MAIN RESULTS In 1996/97, about 3% of Canadians aged 35 to 64, or approximately 345,000 individuals, reported that they had been diagnosed with heart disease. Compared with their contemporaries without heart disease, they reported more pain, chronic conditions, and activity restrictions. They were much less likely than people without heart disease to be employed. A relatively large percentage of them lived in low-income households. The consequences of heart disease were particularly severe for women.