Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of illness involving the heart or blood vessels. In the past, studies have tended to look at either the development of new CVD in healthy people or the progression of CVD in patients who already had the disease. Studies that examine both CVD development and progression are rare, but allow researchers to compare the risk of death in healthy people and patients with different types of CVD. This comparison may help identify patients at particular risk of death, for example in men compared to women, ethnic groups, and across different age groups. It will also allow researchers to study whether patients at greater risk of death differ from low-risk patients in terms of the care they received and what their risk factors are. The results may allow researchers to identify how doctors can ensure the best care for all patients.

The project uses data available for patients admitted to hospital with CVD in England linked to general practice and death certificate data to investigate what people then go on and die from in healthy people and CVD patients. 

This study is part of the CALIBER project lead by Prof. Harry Hemingway at the Farr Institute, University College London (UCL) . Data are accessed under the UCL Annual license.