Epidemiology of Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease

Eighty years ago, the writing of a chapter concerned with cardiac disease in the elderly would have seemed at least indulgent, if not positively wasteful. At that time, the percentage of the population surviving to 65 years was less than 10% in industrialised countries. Acute and chronic infections were a major cause of death in old people, which was frequently ascribed to that non-specific entity, senescence. Even then, however, after infectious fevers, gastro-enteritis and tuberculosis, heart disease was the most frequent cause of death (Mc Keown 1965).