DESCRIPTION:
The Seven Countries Study was the first to establish credible data on incidence and death rates of CHD in contrasting cultures. The study documented population differences in average levels and distributions of coronary risk factors. It also demonstrated large differences in composition of the diet in otherwise similar, stable, rural agricultural or pastoral populations. Diet and cigarette smoking explained most of the differences in population CHD rates, while changes in serum cholesterol and blood pressure levels between entry and 25-year follow-up examinations explained much of the change in CHD death rates.
Results of the Seven Countries Study were crucial to the concept of population causes, that is, the mass phenomena involved in the genesis of coronary heart disease, and which influence widespread individual and species susceptibility. Where environments are unfavourable one finds maximal exhibition of coronary risk and a heavy population disease burden. Where favourable, individual (genetic) susceptibility is attenuated. This concept developed from the Seven Countries study design that combined, for the first time, a population and an individual approach. The study was realised trough effective collaboration established among clinicians, epidemiologists and nutritionists from Europe, the U.S.A., and Japan.
CONTENTS:
Part I: Background and the burden of cardiovascular diseases.
1.1. Objectives and history of the Seven Countries Study H. Blackburn. 1.2. Populations and organization of the surveys in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti. 1.3. Prevalence and incidence of cardiovascular diseases in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti. 1.4. Cardiovascular and all-causes mortality patterns in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti, M. Lanti.
Part II: Diet, lifestyle and coronary heart disease.
2.1. Diet and coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout, B. Bloemberg. 2.2. Diet and coronary heart disease in the Zutphen Study D. Kromhout, B. Bloemberg. 2.3. Cigarette smoking, coronary heart disease and all-causes mortality in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout. 2.4. Alcohol and coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout. 2.5. Physical activity, physical fitness and coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti.
Part III: Biological risk factors and coronary heart disease.
3.1. Serum cholesterol and coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout. 3.2. Blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti. 3.3. Body fatness, coronary heart disease and all-causes mortality in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout. 3.4. Type 2 diabetes, glucose tolerance and cardiovascular diseases in the Seven Countries Study D. Kromhout, E. Feskens. 3.5. Electrocardiographic predictors of coronary heart disease in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti, H. Blackburn. 3.6. Multivariate analysis of major risk factors and coronary risk in the Seven Countries Study A. Menotti.
Part IV: Implications of findings of the Seven Countries Study.
4.1. Risk factors for global coronary risk in preventive and clinical cardiology A. Menotti, D. Kromhout. 4.2. Diet, lifestyle and prevention of coronary heart disease The integration of observational and experimental evidence D. Kromhout, et al. 4.3. Epilogue for the Seven Countries Study H. Blackburn. Appendix.
