ABSTRACT
Coronary heart disease was the leading cause of death in the adult population of the United States at the peak of the pandemic in the 1950s and 1960s. The 1950s and 1960s were the peak years of the coronary heart disease pandemic in the United States, when all age, sex, and race groups had their highest mortality rates. Coronary heart disease mortality rates stabilized for age groups 35-44 and 45-54 about 1950 and remained at that level to 1970, with slight differences by race. Minor discontinuities in the ischemic heart disease category that occurred among revisions eight, nine, and ten of the International Classification of Diseases had only a small effect on mortality rates. Mortality rates from the disease began to decrease for all of these population groups in the 1970s and stopped decreasing about 1990 for younger age groups but continued to decrease after 2000 for older age groups.
