Abstract
The aim of this report is to describe age-adjusted death rates from ischemic heart diseases (IHD) and cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) in recent years and secular trends in the selected countries. World Health Statistics Annuals by the World Health Organization were used for data sources. From 1994 annual statistics, among males, the countries with the highest age-adjusted death rates were as follows in decreasing order: Hungary, former Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Finland for IHD; Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, former Czechoslovakia and Poland for CVD. On the other hand, the countries with the lowest rates were as follows in increasing order: Japan, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy for IHD; Switzerland, Canada, the United States, France and Australia for CVD. The trends of age-adjusted death rates both in IHD and CVD for 1970-1994 decreased in the United States, Australia, Western and Southern Europe and Japan, while both IHD and CVD rates tended to increase in Eastern Europe. Decreasing trends seen in the countries that already showed marked decrease in 1970s through the mid 1980s, seemed to be blunted in recent years. Some countries whose death rates were relatively high showed decreasing trends that lagged behind the other countries: Spain, Poland and Greece for IHD; and Hungary for CVD. J Epidemiol, 1996 ; 6 : S189-S196.
