Residential Proximity to Major Roadway and 10-Year All-Cause Mortality After Myocardial Infarction

BACKGROUND: The relationship between residential proximity to roadway and long-term survival after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is unknown. We investigated the association between distance from residence and major roadway and 10-year all-cause mortality after AMI in the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study (Onset Study), hypothesizing that living closer to a major roadway at the time of AMI would be associated with increased risk of mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Onset Study enrolled 3886 individuals hospitalized for AMI in 64 centers across the United States from 1989 to 1996. Institutionalized patients, those providing only post office boxes, and those whose addresses could not be geocoded were excluded, leaving 3547 patients eligible for analysis. Addresses were geocoded, and distance to the nearest major roadway was assigned. Cox regression was used to calculate hazard ratios, with adjustment for personal characteristics (age, sex, race, education, marital status, distance to nearest acute care hospital), clinical characteristics (smoking, body mass index, comorbidities, medications), and neighborhood-level characteristics derived from US Census block group data (household income, education, urbanicity). There were 1071 deaths after 10 years of follow-up. In the fully adjusted model, compared with living >1000 m, hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for living ≤100 m were 1.27 (1.01-1.60), for 100 to ≤200 m were 1.19 (0.93-1.60), and for 200 to ≤1000 m were 1.13 (0.99-1.30) (P(trend)=0.016). CONCLUSIONS: In this multicenter study, living close to a major roadway at the time of AMI was associated with increased risk of all-cause 10-year mortality; this relationship persisted after adjustment for individual and neighborhood-level covariates.