Cardiovascular disease in a random sample of elderly people.

The observations that follow give some indication of the prevalence of the commoner cardiovascular diseases, including cerebrovascular accidents and the disability resulting therefrom, in a random sample of 476 elderly people living at home in Sheffield. They are based on full clinical examinations which were carried out in the subjects' homes. The importance of cardiovascular disease in the elderly needs no emphasis. It accounted for 42 per cent of all deaths of men over pensionable age (65+) and the same percentage of all deaths of women over pensionable age (60+) in England and Wales in 1949 (Int. List Nos. 90-103). If deaths from intracranial lesions of vascular origin (Tnt. List No. 83) are added, the figures become 54 and 58 per cent. Of the 476 subjects, 192 were men and 284 women. Eighty per cent of the men and 47 per cent of the women were over 70 years of age.