Health insurance news - Heart attack deaths plummet
The number of heart attacks recorded in the UK has dropped dramatically in the past ten years.
According to new research from healthcare experts at Oxford University, not only has the heart attack tally fallen in recent years, but the number of fatalities resulting from myocardial infarction has also dropped significantly.
A combination of factors have resulted in the marked improvement in health insurance customers heart health, the researchers claimed, including dramatic developments in NHS healthcare provision and better awareness of the disease and the lifestyle choices that can affect its presentation.
Between 2002 and 2010, heart attack rates among men fell by 50 per cent, from 78.7 per 100,000 to just 39.2.
The improvement was even more marked in women, dropping 53.3 per cent to just 17.7 per 100,000.
Mortality rates also improved for both sexes.
The study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, also showed that rising obesity could be one of the main reasons that such dramatic improvements were not seen among the young.
Commenting on the overwhelmingly positive research, Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This impressive fall in death rates is due partly to prevention of heart attacks by better management of risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol and due partly to better treatment of heart attack patients when they reach hospital.
"But far too many heart attack victims still die from a cardiac arrest before medical help arrives. Many of these deaths could be prevented by rapid cardiopulmonary resuscitation."
The government recently embarked on a marketing campaign to raise awareness of proper resuscitation techniques.
The campaign was fronted by ex-England player and TV hard man Vinnie Jones. He told people that in the case of a suspected heart attack, check for a pulse, clear a person's airways and press down on the chest regularly and firmly to the tune of Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees.
