Background: Given the great relevancy of the cardiovascular diseases, were analyzed the cardiovascular mortality in the Spanish autonomous communities and its trend during the period 1975-1992, to identify communities with a high death risk by these diseases and to as certain the underlying factors.
Material and methods: The mortality rates standardized by age are calculated for the diseases of the circulatory system (DCS), ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD). The mortality trend has been quantified through the percentual change annual means, using a log-lineal model.
Results: The Communities of Valencia, Extremadura, Andalusia and Murcia show the highest cardiovascular diseases mortality rates while the Communities of Madrid, Navarra, Castilla and Leon and Aragon present the most decreases. In all the communities a decrease of the mortality by DCS has occurred, that ranges from a percentual decrease annual means higher than 3% in Navarre (-3.7%) and Madrid (-3.4%) to values that they do not reach to the 2% of decrease in Murcia (-1.8%) and Balearic Islands (-1.9%). In males as well as in females, the mortality by IHD and CVD falls in all the communities in the period 1975-1992, though the decrease is much greater for CVD.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates a consistent fall of the cardiovascular mortality in all the Spanish autonomous communities and some considerable differences in the level and in the trends of the magnitude mortality among these communities during all the studied period.