Abstrak: Objectives: We examined the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and myocardial infarction and stroke subtypes, including the possible mediating influence of cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods: We evaluated data on 578756 Korean male public servants aged 30 to 58 years from August 1, 1990, to July 31, 2001.

Results: SES had inverse associations with mortality because of myocardial infarction and stroke subtypes, which were not changed by an adjustment for, or stratification by, cardiovascular risk factors. For nonfatal events, SES had positive, null, and inverse associations with myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic stroke, respectively. The association between SES and nonfatal myocardial infarction depended on the presence of risk factors and was positive only among men who had cardiovascular risk factors. Case-fatality after hospital admission for cardiovascular diagnoses was significantly lower among higher SES groups, even after risk factor adjustment.

Conclusions: Inverse SES associations with cardiovascular diseases were not mediated by cardiovascular risk factors among men who were undergoing economic transition. Socioeconomically patterned access to medical care may partly explain these socioeconomic gradients.

Abstrak: Objectives: The explicit objectives of the present study were to assess the level of knowledge on pregnancy "danger signs" and HIV status, estimate the proportion of pregnant women uses health care facilities, and identify sociodemographic predictors.

Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey among 340 black pregnant women from the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Results: The mean age of the pregnant women was 26 years where teenage pregnancy rate was 13%. Most of the pregnant women were single (78%), less educated (60%), and unemployed (92%). Though most of the study population (92%) attended health care facilities, only half (52%) of them knew about some of the "danger signs" of pregnancy, and 39% of them knew about their HIV status. Known HIV status was related to the knowledge of pregnancy complication (P = .018). Knowledge of "danger signs" of pregnancy was significantly (P = .012) associated with the age of the expectant mother.

Conclusion: Low level of knowledge on "danger signs" of pregnancy and their HIV status are observed among pregnant women. This warrants an urgent attempt to introduce health education strategies to rural population of South Africa.