Heart disease deaths halved by healthier lifestyles

The number of deaths from heart disease, strokes and other circulatory diseases is falling in England and Wales as medical advances and healthier lifestyles take effect. Mortality rates in these areas are down by nearly half in a decade, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday. Although coronary artery disease is the biggest single killer – roughly one in six men and one in nine women – cancers as a group now account for most deaths, 30% across both sexes.


Deaths from respiratory disease have fallen too, but dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, is responsible for a rising proportion, one in 10 among women and one in 20 among men. The data says healthier lifestyles have contributed to the fall in heart disease. Photograph: Alamy Decades of campaigning for people to stop smoking and other public health measures appear to be having an effect. Death rates from cancer in the UK are improving slowly but are still worse than in other parts of Europe.

The ONS says there were 484,367 deaths from all causes registered in the two countries last year, a fall of 1.8% on the previous year, and the third year running with fewer than 500,000 deaths. Although health improvements date back well into the 20th century, the ONS suggests more recent government initiatives on lifestyle have played a part. Using mortality rates adjusted for comparison with other EU countries with different age profiles, the ONS says deaths from diseases such as strokes and heart disease have fallen by 44% in men and women, and from cancers by 14% in men and 10% in women, and from respiratory disease by 18% in men and 12% in women.

 The figures do not cover all deaths in a year, as some registrations are delayed and carried into subsequent years because of inquests. A pilot scheme paving the way for improvements in registering deaths from 2014 suggests that currently doctors may blame the wrong disease in as many as one in 10 deaths. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said too many people were still dying from heart and circulatory diseases, as he plugged the ring-fenced public health budgets for local councils in England from next year. "Everyone should have the same opportunity to lead a healthy life, no matter where they live or who they are." Experts at the British Heart Foundation said there remained a north-south, rural-urban divide, despite improvements in treatment and care of heart disease, including increasing use of statin drugs and angioplasty procedures,

The charity's policy manager, Mubeen Bhutta, called for a new sense of urgency from governments. "Not everyone has benefited from this decline equally as the least well off still shoulder a disproportionate burden." The findings on dementia reflected "the biggest health challenge of our generation" said Andrew Chidgey, director of external affairs at the Alzheimer's Society. "With numbers of people with the condition expected to soar to over a million in the next decade, the rates we are seeing today are likely to be a fraction of the numbers in future. "At the same time, the sharp increase in the past 10 years could also be a sign of greater medical understanding and recording of dementia which is something that has to be welcomed," he said. "Too often we hear of people with dementia not ending their lives in the way they want to.

Staff working with people with dementia who might be nearing the end of their lives need to receive specific training so they can provide the best care possible and support those with dementia to die with dignity." Nick Ormiston-Smith, statistical information manager at Cancer Research UK, said the figures were "a stark reminder that, even though we've had great success in reducing the number of cancer deaths, far too many are still dying from this terrible disease. And with more and more people developing the disease each year the burden of cancer in the UK is rapidly growing. "It shows just how much more research is needed to continue the progress we have made. But there is good news too with survival rates doubling in the last 40 years."