Mortality due to coronary heart disease has declined significantly in the US during the past few decades. A study published in 2007 in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ford et al. showed that there were 341,745 fewer deaths in 2000 in comparison to 1980. Death rates in 2000 for both men and women were approximately half their respective values in 1980: the age-adjusted death rate for coronary heart disease fell from 542.9 to 266.8 deaths per 100,000 population among men and from 263.3 to 134.4 deaths per 100,000 population among women.

The study also showed that approximately half of the decline in deaths could be attributed to treatments and the other half to reductions in major risk factors. Using data from this study, we show the percentage contributions of the specific treatments and risk factors that were responsible for this decline.

For details on the study’s methodology and the data used to generate these estimates, go to the study’s page.