are morbidity indicators comparable?
GROUND: The EUROCISS Project (European Cardiovascular Indicators Surveillance Set), as part of the Health Monitoring Programme financed by the European Commission, has been implemented to develop health indicators and recommendations for the monitoring of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Morbidity data are rarely available in the different countries and when available, they are very rarely comparable. The aims of this paper are to list the existing population-based registers of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke in Europe, describe their methodology, and discuss their comparability. METHODS: using a questionnaire a comprehensive and updated picture on available sources of information, data, indicators, and methods were collected for population-based registers. The information requested generally included: the studied disease; the scope of the study (geographical area, temporal duration, age range, population); adopted methodologies (case definition, ICD coding for mortality an
