More heart attacks in rural areas

Core problem of urban-rural divide is not a lack of emergency care for heart attacks, but poorer disease prevention in rural areas. In Germany, more people aged 65 and over die from heart attacks in rural areas than in cities. Contrary to popular belief, this is probably not due to poorer emergency medical care, but because more people suffer heart attacks in rural areas. However, the protection of patients' personal data makes it difficult to announce specific recommendations for action in Germany. In Germany, more people die of heart attacks in rural areas than in cities. This, however, cannot be explained by the so-called case fatality rate, which is the proportion of people who die as a result of a heart attack. According to a recent study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany, the excess mortality in rural areas is due to a higher incidence of heart attacks, meaning more people have heart attacks. For this study, Dr Marcus Ebeling from the MPIDR, along with colleagues from the Swedish Karolinska Institute, the University of Rostock, and the German Federal Institute for Population Research, analyzed data at district level, including all hospital admissions, cause-specific deaths, and population figures for the German population as a whole and for the age group 65+ for the years 2012 to 2018.