Sex differences in declining cohort death rates from heart disease.

We examined cohort mortality from heart disease (HD) at ages 40 and over for White men and women in the United States between 1945 and 1975. For each successive birth cohort from 1886 to 1890 and 1906 to 1910, female HD mortality rates exhibit a continuous decline with parallel slopes which shows no sign of abating in recent years. Among men, cohort HD mortality rates were increasing prior to 1965; since 1965, there has been a reversal of prior trends, i.e., each successive cohort has shown a decrease in HD mortality rates. None of the various hypotheses put forward to explain the recent decline in HD mortality provides a cogent explantation for the differential effects in men and women.