Smoking cessation efforts contribute to heart attack rate reduction

Work by care home staff and other healthcare professionals to cut down smoking could have contributed to a reduction in heart attacks over two decades.

The British Heart Foundation has praised efforts to reduce risk factors, after it emerged that the number of heart attacks has dropped substantially in the UK over the last 20 years.

Experts have estimated that the risk of civil servants having a heart attack fell by 74 per cent between 1985 and 2004.

The foundation's senior cardiac nurse, Ellen Mason, explained: "It's heartening that there was a reduction in the number of heart attacks in this study group, but heart disease is still our single biggest killer.

"And although the number is falling, around 124,000 people still have a heart attack in the UK each year."

However, there is concern about the risk posed by increases to individuals' body mass index.

Scientists estimate that increased BMI raised the risk of having a heart attack by 11 per cent.

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