High blood pressure and smoking were risk factors for three major CVDs while serum cholesterol predicted only CHD
Blood pressure and cigarette smoking predicted overall cardiovascular disease mortality and each major individual cardiovascular disease: that is, coronary heart disease, other heart disease and stroke. Serum cholesterol predicted cardiovascular and coronary heart disease mortality. The association of serum cholesterol with cardiovascular mortality is due to its strong relation to coronary heart disease deaths.
Major risk factors and 35-year typical and atypical CHD mortality risk
Different cardiovascular diseases
The most common cardiovascular diseases are coronary heart disease, other heart diseases, and stroke. In the SCS, coronary heart disease mortality included fatal myocardial infarction and sudden death of probable coronary origin. Mortality from other heart diseases, also called atypical coronary heart disease, consists of chronic heart failure and chronic arrhythmias, mostly atrial fibrillation. Mortality from stroke includes both thrombotic and hemorrhagic stroke, which were inseparable under the conditions of these surveys.