The heart disease chart from OECD Health at a Glance 2023 is not quite as impressive as the stroke one but still it tells a story of massive improvement in the previous decade. Heart attack and other ischaemic heart disease down by one third. The UK is listed 22nd in the rich world (the OECD countries), still four places above Germany. Some surprising countries beat us but unfortunately people in countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, Argentina and South Africa probably die of other things before they die of heart attack. No European country is going to emulate Korea and Japan and their diets very quickly to match them in this area.
Ten years ago the UK was 19th with Germany one place behind. Source: OECD Health at a Glance 2013.
Again, the data from 2010 to 2020 is available from the OECD Health Statistics database. I charted the UK and German data below. It shows the UK reducing its heart attack mortality by 32% in the decade 2010 to 2020 further opening an already noticeable gap with Germany. In 2020 the average German was 22% more likely to die of a heart attack than a Brit.
Again, it is very clear that heart attack treatment in the UK improved massively in the previous decade. We should not be complacent however. France and the Netherlands are miles ahead. We should be looking at what they do and work out how to get up to where they are.
Phil Taylor 