Coronary heart disease mortality trends among whites and blacks--Appalachia and United States, 1980-1993.

Although heart disease-associated mortality has declined steadily since the 1960s, heart disease remains the leading cause of death for both men and women of all races/ethnicities in the United States. This report compares temporal trends in coronary heart disease (CHD) death rates for blacks and whites from 1980 to 1993 (the latest year for which data were available) in the Appalachian Region with trends for the entire United States. The findings indicate that among whites aged > or =35 years the burden of CHD is greater in Appalachia than in the entire United States, with the disparity increasing over time, and among blacks, only slight differences in CHD rates between Appalachia and the United States were observed.