People who live in rural communities are more likely to develop heart disease and have a higher risk of stroke compared to people who live in urban areas.
According to the American Heart Association, some of the reasons include physical access to healthcare, health behaviors that increase risk (tobacco use and lack of exercise,) plus social determinants of health like income, education and food insecurity.
“Portage County actually has one of the highest cardiovascular disease rates as well as mortality from cardiovascular disease,” said Interventional Cardiologist at University Hospitals Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute in Portage County, Dr. Anjan Gupta.
Gupta said this location has offered more specialized heart care since 2015-16.
“Before these patients had to go to like Cleveland or Akron to get the cardiac care and that was a long distance for a lot of people, a lot of these people didn’t want to go there,” he said.
Portage County Commissioner Mike Tinlin said in southern areas of the county, some residents are 45 minutes from UH Portage. He lives about 20 minutes away.
Tinlin was recently diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and a 20% blockage in the arteries of his heart.
“If your doctor orders something or says you need to be checked, you really need or go because there are hidden dangers in your body that you may or may not know,” he said.
A stress test led to Tinlin learning about the blockage and irregular heartbeat.
“Over the course of time [atrial fibrillation] leads to the heart muscle getting weak, the heart doesn’t pump as well and that can lead to congestive heart failure and other problems like that,” said Gupta.
Atrial fibrillation is more common in older adults, but it happens in younger adults, too.
“We still have a lot of work to do, especially from the prevention standpoint, educating people about diet, nutrition, exercise, smoking cessation, those are the important things that I think this under-served population group needs a lot of help from us.”
Tinlin said he wasn’t nervous about his diagnosis and encouraged others to follow doctor’s orders.
“The message needs to be that your body tells you what’s going on, your body knows you and if something is happening, you need to go get it checked.”
