Secular trends in coronary heart disease mortality in Norway, 1966-1986.

In most countries of the western world, the health statistics demonstrate similar secular trends in coronary heart disease mortality. There was a relatively marked increase in the mortality rates until the 1970s, followed by a decline. A cohort analysis was performed to examine these trends. Poisson regression with models that included the effects of age, period, and cohort was applied to Norwegian vital statistics. The results demonstrate that cohort effects explain the secular variations in coronary heart disease mortality in Norway from 1966 to 1986. The author relates these findings to the development of primary and secondary preventive means of coronary heart disease mortality.