[Incidence of myocardial infarct in Germany: prevalence, incidence trends, East-West comparison].

The German National Health Interview and Examination Survey, as a descriptive cross-sectional study, allows the recording of post-myocardial infarct cases, e.g. the number (prevalence) of survivors after an infarct has occurred (non-lethal myocardial infarcts). The 18 to 79 year old residential population in Germany had a lifetime prevalence of 2.45% for conditions after a heart attack. The age-specific lifetime prevalence values increase with increasing age for both men and women. Between the ages of 30 and 59 there are more than 4 male heart attack victims for every woman; between the ages of 60 and 79 this relation is only 1 to 1.5. The 30-< 80 year old population in Germany has around 1,450,000 post-myocardial infarct cases (heart attack victims). There are about 100,000 male post-myocardial infarct cases among relatively young adults between 30 and 49 years of age. There were hardly any cases in the female population in this age group. In regard to post-myocardial infarcts there were no significant morbidity differences between the eastern and western German states in 1997/98. A comparison of the lifetime prevalence rates between 1997/98 and 1990/92 shows the following trend: the number of post-myocardial infarcts in the German population 25-< 70 years old decreased; in Western Germany the lifetime prevalence rates also declined, in Eastern Germany the prevalence rates among both men and women increased in this period of time. In the period 1997/98 there were around 190,000 non-lethal myocardial infarcts in the 18 to 79 year old German population in a full 12 month period (incidence cases of survivors after the occurrence of an acute first and/or acute reinfarcts).