Morbidity from congestive and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area: 1979-1984.

In order to develop an epidemiologic profile of congestive and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, we reviewed hospital discharge diagnosis data for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from 1979 to 1984. For congestive cardiomyopathy, we found statistically significant increases in the age-adjusted hospital discharge diagnosis rate for both men (from 63 to 125/100,000 population/year) and women (from 35 to 58/100,000 population/year). We also found that the age-specific rates increased significantly among older men (55-64 years of age, from 86 to 198/100,000 population/year; 65-74 years of age, from 182 to 322/100,000 population/year) and older women (65-74 years of age, from 106 to 196/100,000 population/year). The rates increased with advancing age for both genders. Men had greater rates than women. For hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, no temporal trends could be discerned. Women were observed to have greater age-specific rates than men; the age-adjusted rates were, however, approximately the same for men and women. The hospital discharge diagnosis rate increased with advancing age among both men and women. The possible reasons for these observed patterns, including the major impact of improvements in diagnosis during the observation period, are discussed. Additional research into these disorders is needed.