The number of deaths from heart disease has almost halved in a decade, but its condition remains the deadliest in the UK

A new badysis of deaths from heart disease worldwide found that the number of Britons who died from this disease was halved between 2005 and 2015, with the death rate falling from 80 deaths per 100,000 to 46 per 100,000. 100,000 inhabitants.

However, the study, conducted by scientists at Imperial College London, reveals that this condition remains the leading cause of death in the UK and around the world.

Research has shown that heart disease has caused the UK twice as many deaths as lung cancer (the second leading cause of death) in 2015 and 18 times more deaths than road accidents (2 , 5 per 100,000 inhabitants).

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United Kingdom, with 24 deaths per 100,000 population.

Coronary heart disease is caused by a reduction in blood supply to the heart muscle. The coronary arteries that supply the heart are blocked by an accumulation of fat in the arterial wall, which reduces blood flow. The disease causes a heart attack (where the blood supply becomes completely blocked), can lead to heart failure (where the heart muscle is damaged) and is linked to a number of factors, including smoking, l? hypercholesterolemia, high blood pressure and diabetes.

The team, funded by the Wellcome Trust and the IHRH Center for Biomedical Research, badyzed the global impact of heart disease by badyzing World Health Organization data on heart disease deaths.

The World Health Organization keeps comprehensive information on all deaths in the world and their causes. When a death occurs, it is reported to a local civil registry. The cause of death is also recorded and the national authority of each country submits every year all deaths to the World Health Organization. These data are publicly available and can be used to report important results.

The research, which was published in the journal Circulation: quality and cardiovascular outcomes also badyzed the number of deaths in the United Kingdom due to infectious diseases, liver disease and respiratory problems. They found that the number of deaths was 5, 10 and 20 per 100,000, respectively.

The scientists behind the research claim that while the reduction in the death rate over the last decade must be celebrated, factors such as obesity and diabetes keep the death toll at a level too high.

Dr. Alexandra Nowbar, lead researcher at the National Heart and Lung Institute, said: "The decrease in the number of deaths from heart disease may be due to a decrease in the number of smokers. witnessed a significant decrease in However, obesity, blood pressure and type 2 diabetes are on the rise and if we do not monitor them – and encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle, we could see the downward trend of deaths from heart disease to reverse in the future. "

The team at Imperial's National Heart and Lung Institute also compared the UK's findings with long-term data from high-, middle-, and low-income countries.

The results revealed that:

• Japan and France had one of the lowest heart disease rates, with 20 out of 100,000 in Japan and 20 out of 100,000 in France (2014 data).
• Rates of death from heart disease in Germany, Poland and Russia (2013 data) were higher than those in the United Kingdom in 2015, with 55, 55 and 220 deaths per 100,000 population.
• Italy, Norway and Spain had lower heart disease mortality rates than the UK in 2015, with 35, 35 and 30 per 100,000, respectively.
• In the United States, the rate of cardiac heart disease was 60 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, down from 90 per 100,000 in 2005.
• In the United States, the mortality rates from road accidents, liver disease, respiratory problems and lung cancer were 13, 10, 25 and 30 per 100,000, respectively. The 2015 stroke mortality rate was 22 per 100,000.
• The most recent rates of heart disease mortality in Brazil, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were 55, 100 and 325 per 100,000.

Although heart disease mortality rates in low-income countries such as Kazakhstan and Ukraine have declined over the last decade, the research team said rates remain high.

Dr. Nowbar explained, "This badysis shows that the number of deaths from heart disease in Eastern Europe is 20 times higher than in high-income countries." This suggests that a country's economy is a major risk factor for heart disease and citizens in poorer countries may have less access to health care and public health interventions, which means that the number of deaths from heart disease remains high. "

The research team warns that data is limited. Many countries, especially those in the poorest countries, have not provided data to the World Health Organization. The badysis is therefore not completely exhaustive for all the countries of the world. They add that mortality rates have been adjusted for the size and age of each population each year.

Scientists add that, overall, the data suggests that more public health interventions and initiatives to encourage healthy lifestyles are needed to tackle the millions of lost lives around the world because of heart disease.