Trends in age-adjusted coronary heart disease mortality rates in Slovakia between 1993 and 2009

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and especially coronary heart disease (CHD) are the main causes of death in the Slovak Republic (SR). The aim of this study is to explore trends in age-adjusted coronary heart disease mortality rates in the whole Slovak population and in the population of working age between the years 1993 and 2009. A related indicator - potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to CHD - was calculated in the same period for males and females. Crude CHD mortality rates were age-adjusted using European standard population. The joinpoint Poisson regression was performed in order to find out the annual percentage change in trends. The age-adjusted CHD mortality rates decreased in the Slovak population and also in the population of working age. The change was significant only within the working-age sub-group. We found that partial diagnoses (myocardial infarction and chronic ischaemic heart disease) developed in the mirror-like manner. PYLL per 100,000 decreased during the observed period and the decline was more prominent in males. For further research we recommend to focus on several other issues, namely, to examine the validity of cause of death codes, to examine the development of mortality rates in selected age groups, to find out the cause of differential development of mortality rates in the Slovak Republic in comparison with the Czech Republic and Poland, and to explain the causes of decrease of the age-adjusted CHD mortality rates in younger age groups in Slovakia.