ABSTRACT
Coronary heart disease mortality became the leading cause of adult deaths in the United States from the 1940s to near the end of the century. Its distinctive characteristics demonstrate that this was a new pandemic coronary heart disease that differed significantly from normal coronary heart disease early in the century. The new pandemic form of coronary heart disease became a more important cause of death in all age groups in 1940. The large sex differences in coronary heart disease mortality rates in 1940 were greater in the white population and widened more with age. In enumerating coronary heart disease mortality rates from 1948 to 1967, the United States vital statistics reports used the new term of the International Classification of Diseases, "arteriosclerotic heart disease, including coronary disease. Higher coronary heart disease rates in persons of lower socioeconomic positions were found in three methodologically sophisticated studies of very large samples.
