[Comparison of the course of myocardial infarction and post-infarction morbidity among urban and rural populations in the Kielce region].

An analysis is made of the course of myocardial infarct and the post-hospital period of the illness in 997 patients from the Kielce Region who were hospitalized in the Clinical Department of Cardiology in the years 1977-1985. The patients were classified into three groups: I--a group of 226 patients who have resided in town since birth, II--a group of 507 patients who resided in the rural areas till the age 14-18 years and who later moved to towns, and III--a group of 264 patients who have lived in rural areas since birth. All the three groups were comparable with one another with respect to the proportion of hospitalized men and women, the average age of hospitalized men and women, frequency of occurrence of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias in the course of the hospital phase of illness, hospital death rate up to the age of 70 years, an increased proportion of hospital death rate of women in relation to that of men and the structures of causes of death during the hospital period of illness. The main differences concerned: a markedly lower hospital death rate in the group of rural population over the age of 70 (p less than 0.001), a markedly more frequent occurrence of the risk factors of ischaemic heart disease in the group of urban population, and a markedly more frequent occurrence of block A-V IIIo and the arrhythmia disturbances of intraventricular conduction in the group of rural population. Hospital death rate in the analyzed period was 19.2%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)