Men living in areas of high unemployment and those with low-paying jobs are more likely to die of heart disease according to a new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that men living in prosperous areas such as Utah, Hawaii, and Colorado were less likely to die of heart disease than men living in poor economic regions including Kentucky, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

The researchers examined heart disease death rates between 1991 and 1995. They found that heart disease coincided with high unemployment rates and low median wages. Researchers believe that the underlying social and economic factors in such areas, including adverse work environment, lack of social support, and depression, contribute to the increase in heart disease.

In the study, heart disease deaths averaged 675 per 100,000 men. In economically depressed areas, such as the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, coastal Georgia, coastal North Carolina and South Carolina, and the Ohio-Mississippi River Valley, the rates were significantly higher.

Mississippi reported the highest death rate of 878 men per 100,000. West Virginia was second with 797 deaths per 100,000 and Kentucky's rate of 783 deaths per 100,000 was third highest. Hawaii's death rate of 482 per 100,000 was the Nation's lowest.

Black men exhibited the highest heart related death rate with 841 deaths per 100,000 men. Caucasian men suffered 666 heart disease-related deaths per 100,000.