Importance of cardiovascular diseases for morbidity and mortality

Abstract

In past centuries infectious diseases, infant mortality and nutritional diseases were the leading causes of death, whereas in recent times, cardiovascular diseases have become the major killers in developed countries (in 1985 51%, and in 1988 49.7% of deaths in West Germany were due to cardiovascular disease, and in the United States the percentage was 43% in 1988). Cardiovascular diseases are consistently being recognized as the number one cause of death in various countries. There are, however, marked differences between various countries. The mortality rate of coronary heart disease, for example, is much higher in the United States and Europe than it is in Asian countries (Table 1).