Key Points
- To present ischaemic heart disease mortality statistics and evaluate the cross-sectional comparability of myocardial infarction morbidity data across international monitoring sites.
- Monitored acute myocardial infarction mortality and morbidity across 39 Collaborating Centres in 26 countries over a 10-year observation period.
- Applied standardized event registration procedures and uniform diagnostic classification criteria to categorize suspected coronary events.
- Analyzed routine population mortality statistics alongside diagnostic data sources, including autopsy availability, across participating sites.
- Cross-sectional comparisons of morbidity across different centres were confounded by uneven availability of diagnostic resources, such as autopsy data.
- Variations in local data availability led to significant differences in the distribution of diagnostic categories among centres.
- Internal monitoring of longitudinal morbidity trends within individual centres remained robust and unaffected by between-centre diagnostic discrepancies.
Structured PICO
PPopulationPopulations monitored in 39 Collaborating Centres across 26 countries
OOutcomeMortality and morbidity from acute myocardial infarctionhard clinical
The WHO MONICA project highlights challenges in cross-sectional comparison of acute myocardial infarction morbidity data across different countries due to variations in diagnostic data availability, though longitudinal within-center monitoring remains robust.
Limitations
- Differences in availability of data used for diagnostic classification of events (such as autopsy data) cause problems in cross-sectional comparison of morbidity data between centres