• Dong Yang, Stefan James, Ulf de Faire, Lars Alfredsson, Tomas Jernberg, and Tahereh Moradi.
• Institute of Environmental Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Plos One. 2013 Jan 1; 8 (4): e62316.

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between sex, country of birth, level of education as an indicator of socioeconomic position, and the likelihood of treatment in a coronary care unit (CCU) for a first-time myocardial infarction.DesignNationwide register based study.SettingSweden.Patients199 906 patients (114 387 men and 85,519 women) of all ages who were admitted to hospital for first-time myocardial infarction between 2001 and 2009.Main Outcome MeasuresAdmission to a coronary care unit due to myocardial infarction.ResultsDespite the observed increasing access to coronary care units over time, the proportion of women treated in a coronary care unit was 13% less than for men. As compared with men, the multivariable adjusted odds ratio among women was 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.77 to 0.82). This lower proportion of women treated in a CCU varied by age and year of diagnosis and country of birth. Overall, there was no evidence of a difference in likelihood of treatment in a coronary care unit between Sweden-born and foreign-born patients. As compared with patients with high education, the adjusted odds ratio among patients with a low level of education was 0.93 (95% confidence interval 0.89 to 0.96).ConclusionsForeign-born and Sweden-born first-time myocardial infarction patients had equal opportunity of being treated in a coronary care unit in Sweden; this is in contrast to the situation in many other countries with large immigrant populations. However, the apparent lower rate of coronary care unit admission after first-time myocardial infarction among women and patients with low socioeconomic position warrants further investigation.

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