WEDNESDAY, July 17, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- While a new study shows the death rates from heart disease and stroke have fallen around the world, the report finds they have reached record levels in the Russian Federation.
Results of the study, performed by Swiss and Italian researchers, appear in the journal Heart. The researchers looked at heart-related death rates in Europe, the United States, Japan and a few other select countries based on World Health Organization data collected from 1965-1998.
Researchers say rates in most countries have come down because of widespread treatment of blood pressure, improved diet and lifestyle changes. They did not offer a reason for the rise of such deaths in Russia.
Deaths from heart disease and stroke in the United States were almost two-thirds lower during the period than three decades earlier, according to the study. In Japan, where rates were already very low in the mid-1960s, deaths from heart disease among women are now the lowest in the world at 18 per 100,000 of the population.
More Information
To learn about heart disease and stroke, you can visit the American Heart Association.
