Age-specific trends in mortality from ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease in Australia.

Analysis of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular disease mortality rates in Australia shows that: first, deaths from IHD increased from 1950 to the mid-1960s with successive cohorts experiencing higher mortality rates. Around 1967 this trend stopped simultaneously in men over 35 years and women over 45 years and mortality rates from IHD began to decline at similar rates throughout the population. Second, deaths from cerebrovascular disease have declined in both sexes and all age groups over 35 years throughout the period 1950-1978. This change has been more pronounced for women than men. Third, the relative frequency of IHD and cerebrovascular disease as the cause of death has changed in women. IHD has become the more frequent cause of death in the older age groups. More recently this change in relative frequency has occurred in younger women as well.