Mortality from circulatory diseases by specific country of birth across six European countries: test of concept.

Background: Important differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality by country of birth have been shown within European countries. We now focus on CVD mortality by specific country of birth across European countries.

Methods: For Denmark, England and Wales, France, The Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden mortality information on circulatory disease, and the subcategories of ischaemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, was analysed by country of birth. Information on population was obtained from census data or population registers. Directly age-standardized rates per 100 000 were estimated by sex for each country of birth group using the WHO World Standard population 2000-25 structure. For differences in the results, at least one of the two 95% confidence intervals did not overlap.

Results: Circulatory mortality was similar across countries for men born in India (355.7 in England and Wales, 372.8 in Scotland and 244.5 in Sweden). For other country of birth groups-China, Pakistan, Poland, Turkey and Yugoslavia-there were substantial between-country differences. For example, men born in Poland had a rate of 630.0 in Denmark and 499.3 in England and Wales and 153.5 in France; and men born in Turkey had a rate of 439.4 in Denmark and 231.4 in The Netherlands. A similar pattern was seen in women, e.g. Poland born women had a rate of 264.9 in Denmark, 126.4 in England and Wales and 54.4 in France. The patterns were similar for ischaemic heart disease mortality and cerebrovascular disease mortality.

Conclusion: Cross-country comparisons are feasible and the resulting findings are interesting. They merit public health consideration.