Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease in General Practice

Abstract

Coronary heart disease in the UK is a very common problem. Coronary heart disease (CHD) causes over 117,000 deaths a year in the UK: approximately 1 in five deaths in men and one in six deaths in women. Although death rates from CHD have been falling rapidly in the UK since the late 1970s, they are still among the highest in Western Europe. There is considerable variation in death rates from CHD in the UK: death rates are higher in Scotland than in the south of England, as shown in Figure 1 , and this is typical of all age groups and both sexes. Also death rates are higher in manual workers than non-manual workers and are particularly high among Indian and Pakistani men.