Trends in the Incidence of Myocardial Infarction and in Mortality Due to Coronary Heart Disease, 1987 to 1994

Abstract

Mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) has declined steadily in the United States for the past 30 years.1,2 Between 1990 and 1994, age-adjusted mortality from CHD among people 35 years of age or older in the United States declined by 10.3 percent3; the rate of decline was highest for white men (2.9 percent per year) and lowest for black women (1.6 percent per year). National vital statistics provide mortality rates for CHD, and national hospital-discharge surveys yield rates of hospitalization for myocardial infarction. Neither measure is adequate to evaluate the incidence of CHD, however, since they are based . . .