III. THE EFFECT OF AGE GROUP ON THE NUMBER OF DEATHS DUE TO THE THREE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES In industrialized countries the proportion of deaths from cardiovascular diseases increases with age, in both sexes. Also, in all age groups the death rates for cardiovascular disease are higher in men than in women. Both of these statements are true for neoplasms, except that in the age group 30-50 mortality from all neoplasms is higher in women than men. Nevertheless, the overall decrease in mortality in women and the increase in men results in the death rate for the two sexes diverging further over the ages of 40-50. As DeHass states, “in nearly all industrialized countries the death rates [for cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms] in men continue to rise and in women to fall.” We shall have more to say about this growing divergence later.* The killer role of cardiovascular diseases and cancer in middle and old age in industrialized countries "is taken over by accidents, mainly traffic accidents, by young adults and children, especially in males." 5 Cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms and accidents therefore dominate the mortality picture among young and old adults. "These three big killers have in common the fact that medical prevention is in its infancy." 6 Much of what has been stated thus far concerning the age and sex pattern of death from the three leading causes in industrialized countries is graphically displayed in 4 figures from DeHass as shown below: (In studying these figures the reader may note that, except for Japan, neoplasms spread more uniformly over the age spectrum into infants and young children, whereas cardiovascular diseases do not begin their climb until the early or late twenties.) "Geographic Pathology of the Major Killing Disorders: Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease" by J. H. DeHass in Health of Mankind, Ciba Foundation Symposium 1967, Distributed in U.S. by Little Brown and Co., Boston, pages 79-96 (plus discussion). Ibid., pages 80 and 83. 'Ibid., page 83. 7 Ibid., pages 81-2. |