Trends in fatal and non‐fatal coronary heart disease events in Finland during 1991–2001

Abstract

Objective—To analyse the trends in fatal and non‐fatal coronary heart disease (CHD) events in Finland during an 11‐year period 1991–2001. Design—Data on hospitalizations due to CHD in the Hospital Discharge Register were linked to the National Causes of Death Register in order to produce a Cardiovascular Disease Register including data on 271 771 events in 234 244 individuals. Results—The annual average decline in the age‐standardized CHD mortality rate was 5.2% (95% CI, −5.6, −4.8%) among men and 6.1% (−6.6, −5.6%) among women. The incidence of first myocardial infarction declined annually on average by 5.5% (−5.9, −5.1%) from 1991 to 1997 and by 2.4% (−3.0, −1.7%) from 1998 to 2001 among men. The respective changes among women were −5.9% (−6.5, −5.2%) and −1.7% (−2.7, −0.6%). The number of hospitalizations due to unstable angina pectoris increased between 1991 and 1996 (p=0.0002) and remained stable for the rest of the study period. Conclusions—The Cardiovascular Disease Register is a powerful tool for epidemiological monitoring of cardiovascular diseases in Finland.