Between North Karelia, Finland, and Kaunas, Lithuania, from 1971 to 1987
516 Br Heart J 1992;68:516-23 EPIDEMIOLOGY Br Heart J: first published as 10.1136/hrt.68.11.516 on 1 November 1992. Downloaded from Comparison of trends in ischaemic heart disease between North Karelia, Finland, and Kaunas, Lithuania, from 1971 to 1987 Daiva Rastenyte, Veikko Salomaa, Harri Mustaniemi, Dalia Rasteniene, Regina Grazuleviciene, Zygimantas Cepaitis, Jari Kankaanpaa, Kari Kuulasmaa, Jorma Torppa, Juozas Bluzhas, Jaakko Tuomilehto Abstract Conclusions-Despite the remarkable Objective-To compare the long-term decline in the occurrence of ischaemic trends in mortality and attack rate of heart disease, it still remains the most ischaemic heart disease in North Karelia, important cause of premature mortality Finland, and in Kaunas, Lithuania, from in North Karelia. In Kaunas ischaemic 1971 to 1987. heart disease mortality and attack rate Design-Data on routine mortality increased in men. Experiences from suc- statistics were obtained from the Central cessful cardiovascular disease prevention Statistical Office of Finland and from the programmes in western countries, such Central City Archives of Kaunas. In ad- as the North Karelia Project, should be dition, data from the community based exploited to prevent an increasing myocardial infarction registers were epidemic of ischaemic heart disease in used. The registers used similar diagnos- eastern Europe. tic criteria and had operated in both areas during the entire study period. (Br Heart J 1992;68:516-23) Setting-The province ofNorth Karelia in Finland and the city of Kaunas in During the late 1950s and the early 1960s Lithuania. several western countries, including Finland, http://heart.bmj.com/ Subjects-The target populations were experienced a considerable increase in mor- the people of North Karelia and Kaunas tality and morbidity from ischaemic heart dis- aged 35-64 years.
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