But more survive

Austrians suffer heart attacks more often

In the past ten years, the number of acute heart attacks in Austria has doubled. More and more (older) people are surviving heart attacks and then suffering a second one. According to one expert, however, the disease is not linked to a bad lifestyle. 

The Innsbruck Cardiology Department alone treats around 1000 acute heart attacks every year, as Innsbruck's Cardiology Clinic Director Axel Bauer reports. As people are getting older overall, this simply "increases the number of heart attacks", says the top doctor. In addition, heart attacks can be diagnosed better and better, which drives up the statistics.

More and more older people are surviving heart attacks
The fact that the number has doubled since 2015 is also due to the fact that they can be treated better, for example with minimally invasive methods. Only a minor intervention and no surgery is necessary. Such minimally invasive procedures and improved therapies mean that "more and more older people are surviving heart attacks" and can therefore have more in old age, explains Bauer.

Heart attacks are not due to a poor lifestyle
The disease is definitely not linked to a poor lifestyle or a lack of health awareness. "On the contrary, I believe that health awareness has actually improved in recent years," says Bauer. This is also reflected in the fact that "mortality in industrialized countries has been clearly declining for some time".

AI can detect risk of heart attack
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also becoming increasingly important in the field of cardiology - the branch of medicine that deals with the heart. For example, AI can be used to find out a person's "biological age", as Bauer explains. AI can therefore determine "how old the body really is." If the "biological age" differs from the actual age, "an increased risk of heart disease can be inferred."