Effects of coronary risk reduction on the pattern of mortality.
Control of coronary risk factors is associated with lower age-specific risks, but people will then live longer, with increased exposure to the higher mortality rates of the elderly. Expected changes in pattern of mortality, based on the 15-year follow-up of men in the Whitehall study, have been calculated. Non-smokers live longer than smokers, but death (when it comes) is more likely to be due to heart attack and less likely to be due to cancer. By contrast a lower level of plasma cholesterol, which is also associated with longer life, is expected to reduce the lifetime risk of fatal heart attack, its place then being taken by a typical mixture of other causes of death.
Rose
G
G
Department of Epidemiology and Population Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.
Shipley
M
M
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002423:Cause of Death; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*
D002784:Cholesterol