Printed in Great Britain Mortality from Ischaemic Heart Disease and Cerebrovascular Disease

• Main Authors: In Greenland, Peter Bjerregaard, Jrn Dyerbergt
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; greenlander*; greenlandic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1032.1321; http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/3/514.full.pdf

Greenlanders. Mortality from IHD was lower in Greenland than in Denmark for both rrtales and females and especially low in Greenlandic settlements. IHD mortality decreased during the period. Mortality from CD was higher in Greenland than in Denmark with no certain time trend. Living conditions, of which a high intake of seafood may be a key factor, and/or a genetic predisposition seem to protect Greenlanders from IHD and to predispose them to CD. A line of scientific investigations on thromboembolic and atherosclerotic disease has been based on the observation that Greenlanders have a low incidence of Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD), and an increased bleeding tendency, both phenomena attributed to the intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, abundant in the Greenlandic diet.1-2 The evidence for a low inci-dence of IHD in Greenlanders has so far been based on a few scientific reports3'4 and on official mortality statis-tics.5 The latter are not very detailed and do not allow a distinction between mortality in native Greenlanders, who make up approximately 80 % of the population, and Danes. Also, the validity of the Greenlandic mor-tality statistics has been questioned.'The recent estab-lishment of a computerized death register for Greenland allows a much more detailed analysis of mortality data than hitherto available, at present for the period 1968-83.7 MATERIAL AND METHODS