Director of Public Health Annual Report 2022: Preventing heart disease and stroke in Buckinghamshire

There were 1,070 deaths of all ages due to cardiovascular disease in 2020 and cardiovascular disease accounted for over one in five of all deaths in Buckinghamshire.

More than one in five deaths from cardiovascular disease occurred in people under 75 years of age in 2020.

The all-age death rate due to cardiovascular disease in Buckinghamshire is 17% lower and the premature cardiovascular disease death rate is 29% lower than the national average in 2020.

The all-age death rates from cardiovascular disease fell by more than half (57% reduction) between 2001 and 2019. The reduction in cardiovascular disease death rates has accounted for the majority (69%) of the fall in all cause all age death rates in Buckinghamshire over this period. Premature mortality due to cardiovascular disease has also more than halved, with a 58% reduction between 2001 and 2019.

However, provisional data reveal the downward trend in deaths from cardiovascular disease reversed in Buckinghamshire during the pandemic, with a 10% increase in all age cardiovascular disease mortality between 2020 and 2021 – the largest year-on-year increase in both relative and absolute terms since comparable data started being published in 2001. The increase in premature deaths from cardiovascular disease has shown an even greater increase with a 22% rise in premature cardiovascular disease death rates between 2020 and 2021.

On average over at least the last 20 years (2001-2021) all-age death rate due to cardiovascular disease has been 1.5 times higher in the most deprived than in the least deprived quintile, and the premature death rate 2.5 times higher in the most deprived than in the least deprived quintile. Provisional data (2020 to 2021) reveal greater increases in cardiovascular disease mortality in the most deprived quintile (23% all age increase) than in the least deprived quintile (7% all age increase).

Both all-age mortality rate and premature mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease have been consistently significantly higher in men than in women over the last 20 years – on average the all-age rate in men has been 1.5 times higher than in women and the premature death rate has been 2.3 times higher in men than in women (2001 to 2019). Pre-pandemic the cardiovascular disease all-age and premature mortality rates fell by similar proportions in both men and women (men 59% and 59%, women 56% and 55%).

However, over the last two years (2019-2021) mortality rates have risen more in men than in women. The male all-age cardiovascular disease mortality rate has risen by 24%, and the premature mortality by 53%. In women, the all-age mortality rate has risen by 3% and the premature mortality by 15%.