Low prevalence of ischemic electrocardiographic findings in a Danish population.
OBJECTIVE
Mortality and incidence of cardiovascular disease have declined during the past 35-40 years. The dual aim of this study is to investigate whether the prevalence of electrocardiographic findings is low compared with older studies and to describe the prevalence of electrocardiographic findings in the Danish population, which has not been reported since 1981.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study based on electrocardiograms obtained from a random sample of the population in the district of Ebeltoft, Denmark, December 1991-June 1992.


RESULTS
The age and sex stratified prevalence of abnormal electrocardiograms ranged from 6.8% (95% CI: 4.01-10.7%) in women to 15.0% (95% CI: 10.6-20.4%) in men aged 41-51 years. Men had significantly more electrocardiographic changes than women (p = 0.004). Frequent findings were signs of earlier myocardial infarction (3.1%; 95% CI: 2.1-4.5%), axis deviation (3.1%; 95% CI: 2.1-4.5%) and incomplete right bundle branch block (1.2%; 95% CI: 0.6-2.2%).


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of ischemic electrocardiographic findings is low when compared with studies from the past 50 years.
Department and Research Unit of General Practice, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. mj@alm.au.dk
Morten S A
MS
Jensen
Janus L
JL
Thomsen
Svend E
SE
Jensen
Torsten
T
Lauritzen
Marianne
M
Engberg
D000375:Aging; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D022062:Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012727:Sex Characteristics