The Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease in Eastern Europe

To the Editor: Mortality from cardiovascular disease in Eastern Europe was low at the beginning of the 1960s, but a serious increase has occurred and in 1990 mortality was substantially higher than in Western Europe and the United States. 1 The political changes in Eastern Europe after 1990 caused serious economic problems and simultaneously led to a further increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease (Figure 1). Premature mortality from cardiovascular disease among men in the Russian Federation is now almost four times as high as in the United States. The causes of the epidemic of cardiovascular disease in Eastern Europe are . . .