OBJECTIVES : Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of hospitalisation and mortality in Hungary and in most European Union countries. The aim of our study was to analyse age-specific standardised mortality related to ischaemic heart disease in 100,000 population.

METHODS : Data were derived from the WHO European Mortality Database for the years 1990 and 2015, for the age group above 65. We compared standardised mortality related to ischaemic heart disease in 100,000 population in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Czechia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia), Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxemburg, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland) and former states of the Soviet Union (Azerbaijan, Estonia, Belorussia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) in both sexes. In our analysis we used descriptive statistics, test of normality and two-sample Student’s T-test.

RESULTS : In 1990, standardised mortality in people above age 65 was the highest in former Soviet States (n=15) 2419.50/100,000, the lowest rate was found in Western Europe (WE; N=17) 998.97/100,000.It decreased to 1846.37/100,000 (-23.69%, n=13) and 386.69/100,000 (-61.29%, n=17) by 2015 respectively. In Eastern Europe (EE) the rate of changes (-25.78%)was similar to that in former Soviet states. Between 1990 and 2015, a significant decrease was found in both sexes mortality rates in states of the former Soviet (men -24.89%; women-26.69%), in EE (men-27.10%; women-25.21%) and WE as well (men-61.79%; women-62.56%). Male mortality exceeded female mortality in all the three groups. Significant differences were found for 2015 among the three groups in mortality, in both sexes and between the sexes as well (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS : We found significant improvement in ischaemic heart disease mortality in all of the three groups of countries. The highest improvement was observed in Western-European countries.