Epidemiologic evidence for cardiovascular disease initiatives in Israel and the United States.

There seems to be much epidemiologic evidence implicating a variety of modifiable risk factors in the occurrence of coronary artery disease. Although "common sense" would imply modification of each of these risk factors, on both an individual and a national basis, in order to prevent the occurrence of coronary artery disease in middle and later life, the direct evidence for a beneficial effect from such modifications is, at present, quite meager. Nevertheless, there seems to be a growing awareness and also a growing change in lifestyle and health behaviors that will tend to accomplish the "common sense" recommendations. It is important that monitoring systems be put in place to document the extent of these lifestyle changes and to evaluate their effect on the continuing trends in coronary artery disease incidence and mortality. Joint efforts in the United States, Israel, and other countries will go far to quantitate these effects in these naturally occurring experiments.