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From 1950 to 1956 coronary disease has increased both as a rate, by 36 per cent.
(34 per cent. for males, 38 per cent. for females), and in importance, in that whereas
in 1950 it formed 35 per cent. of total mortality from heart disease, by 1956 this figure
had risen to 49 per cent.; the other three components have all declined both absolutely
and relatively. A brief glance at these three reveals one or two interesting features.
As regards sex incidence generally both chronic rheumatic heart disease and other heart
disease show a female excess over the years whereas heart disease due to hypertension
starts with a slight male excess and ends with a more marked female excess. These
facts, however, ignore the great increase in mortality with increasing age. It is only
in the comparatively minor component of chronic rheumatic heart disease that there
is a true female excess age group by age group whereas for both heart disease due to
hypertension and other heart disease the much higher rates at the older ages at which
women are in the majority are what produce the overall female excess. The 1956
age specific deaths and death rates set out below illustrate the point.

As regards coronary disease, angina, the pattern both by years and age groups is
set out below. It will be seen that although the maximum death rate (at age 75+) is
less for either sex than that for other heart disease, the rate is much higher at middle
age (45.64) than the other components and it is for this reason that its importance is
manifest. Here too lies the main reason for the general male excess of the ' heart
death rate over the female and, whereas at these ages the female rate has remained
relatively constant, the male rate has steadily increased to about five times the female.
At later ages the rates for both males and females have risen and again the larger rise,
both proportionately and absolutely, occurs in males.
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