Importance of heart failure as a cause of death. Changing contribution to overall mortality and coronary heart disease mortality in Scotland 1979–1992

Abstract

Death from heart failure is substantially underestimated by official statistics. Furthermore, one third or more of deaths currently attributed to coronary heart disease may be related to heart failure and this proportion appears to be increasing. While the absolute numbers of deaths caused by heart failure remains constant, this study is the first to show that standardized mortality rates are declining.