Aim To study the nosological structure of male mortality in 5-year age groups (15–85+) and the contribution of cardiac causes to all-cause mortality in 2020; to discuss the correctness of statistical recording of causes of cardiac death.Material and methods Data source: Center for Demographic Research of the Russian School of Economy http://demogr.nes.ru / index.php / ru / demogr_indicat / agreement. The selected indexes were all-cause death, causes of the class of circulatory diseases (CD) according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) (class IX, codes I00–I99), and cardiac causes of death (codes I00–I40, I70, I67.4, Q20–28) in 5-year age groups.Results Proportions of CD and cardiac causes in the male all-cause mortality were almost identical in the age groups younger than 30 years. Then the proportion of cardiac deaths remained almost unchanged (30–34 %) in contrast to the rapid growth of the CD proportion (to 51 % with a maximum at 75–79 years). Until the age of 45 years, more than 50% of cardiac deaths were caused by heart defects and cardiomyopathies and more than 25% by acute forms of ischemic heart disease (IHD); in older groups, their proportions decreased but the mortality increased. In the age groups younger than 50 years, the mortality from “Other forms of acute IHD” (ICD codes I20, I24.1–9 counted as one line) was higher than the mortality from myocardial infarction (MI); after 50 years, the MI mortality became higher. The combined proportion of two groups in the mortality from cardiac causes was maximal at the age of 20–24 years (31 %), then it decreased to a minimum of 9 % at the age of 85+. The mortality from and the proportions of chronic forms of IHD (more than 50% of which have no clear criteria for diagnosis and death), arterial hypertension, “Myocardial degeneration” (ICD code I51.5), and “Pulmonary heart and pulmonary circulation disorders” (ICD codes I26–I28) rapidly grow with increasing age. Existing approaches to recording the causes of death do not allow assessment of the contribution and mortality rates from a number of cardiac diseases.Conclusion Mortality reduction programs should provide more accurate recording of the causes of death and take into account age-related features of the nosological structure of cardiac mortality.
