Ischemic Heart Disease and the Epidemiologic Transition: Progress without Reduction in Global Burden

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains the leading cause of cardiovascular mortality worldwide. Although age standardized death rates have declined over the past two decades, the absolute number of deaths continues to rise due to population growth and demographic aging. This Perspective examines the resulting paradox of progress, in which improving mortality rates coexist with an expanding global burden. Emerging evidence from recent global analyses highlights widening disparities across regions, sexes, and age groups. Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies suggest an increasing burden of early onset IHD among adults aged 15 to 49 years, associated with rising incidence and prevalence, with notable regional variability and links to metabolic and dietary risks. While high income settings continue to achieve sustained mortality reductions, low- and middle-income regions face persistent gaps in prevention and care. These disparities reflect differences in health system capacity, including limited screening, delayed access to acute cardiac care, and suboptimal use of secondary prevention. Scalable strategies such as task-sharing and simplified treatment approaches offer practical solutions but remain underused. A strategic shift toward implementation, life-course prevention, and equity-focused policy reform is essential. Importantly, this perspective bridges the gap between epidemiological trends and health policy, linking epidemiologic trends to scalable implementation strategies for clinicians and policymakers to address the global burden of IHD.