Heart attack risk in eastern Germany higher

Heart attack risk significantly higher in men and in eastern Germany
Men are more likely to have a heart attack than women and the risk of heart attack is higher in the new federal states than in the west. The German Society of Cardiology (DGK) presented the current Heart Report 2009 at its autumn conference in Nuremberg.

Men more frequently affected by heart attacks than women
Thus, men over 50 percent were hospitalized more frequently because of a heart attack than women. And the cost of treating heart disease among men has risen far more sharply between 2002 and 2008 than among women, 22.5 percent versus 11.8 percent „Heart attack is still predominantly a male disease in Germany“, emphasized the author of the Heart Report, Ernst Bruckenberger. Either the genetic disposition in men is less favorable or they live more unhealthy, explained the expert further, the heart report covers only the number of diseases, but provides no scientific explanation of the causes. According to the Heart Report 2009, 133,636 men were hospitalized in Germany because of a heart attack, compared with 77,069 women. In 2009, 30,559 men and 26,216 women died of a heart attack, bringing the death rate for men 21.2 percent higher than women.

Strong regional differences - East Germany tends to be more affected
In addition to the gender-specific differences in heart attacks, the Heart Report 2009 once again documents significant regional differences. Heart attacks are far more common in the new federal states than in the West, with the number of deaths from heart attacks in Saxony-Anhalt by 42.9 percent, in Brandenburg by 46 percent, in Saxony by 18.6 percent, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by 14 , 9 percent and in Thuringia has increased by 13 percent. On the other hand, relatively few people die in Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein and the city states of Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin. Broken down at the county level, the differences become even bigger. For example, cardiac infarction-related deaths increased 106 percent in the Spree-Neiße district and 102.7 percent in the Uckermark region. In contrast, there is a decrease in deaths in the district of Plön (minus 66.6 percent), the city of Memmingen (minus 58.7 percent) and the district of Schleswig-Flensburg (minus 56.5 percent), reflecting the strong regional differences in deaths by Heart attacks clarified.

Differences in the supply landscape
The ministerial council a.D. at the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs and author of the Heart Report 2009, Ernst Bruckenberger, the clear differences between East and West are primarily due to the poorer medical care in the new federal states. In his view, can from one „even in approximately even supply landscape“ are not spoken for the essential heart diseases, even if the treatment options in Germany are generally good. Germany, for example, occupies a leading position in cardiac catheterization laboratories with currently 930 institutions in international comparison.

Number of treatment is only slightly increasing
The number of treatments such as cardiac catheterization (plus 1.5 percent), percutaneous coronary interventions (plus 1.8 percent) and stents (plus 1.1 percent) continued to increase in 2009, but the increase over the previous year, according to statement The expert of the DGK, Michael Böhm, sees his assessment confirmed that in Germany meanwhile a sufficient and efficient supply structure in cardiology has become established. Overall, the author of the Heart Report draws a positive balance, because heart attacks are the cause of death for fewer and fewer people in Germany: „The number of heart attack deaths has fallen by a total of 10,507 deaths or 15.4 percent since the year 2000“, said Bruckenberger, with the death rate among men and women decreasing in all age groups. Patients in the 70-80 year age group benefited most from advances in diagnosis and treatment. According to the Heart Report 2009, an average of 69.2 people per 100,000 live in Germany die from heart attacks per year. (fp, 09.10.2010)

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