For heart attack, prevention strategies seem to work

A large scale study of Kaiser Permanente health policy holders in Northern California shows that hospital admissions for heart attack dropped significantly between 1999 and 2008 — coinciding with the implementation of public health efforts such as smoking bans, lowered target levels for blood pressure and cholesterol and more widespread use of preventive medications such as statins, beta blockers and aspirin regimes. - TIME (blog)

Heart attacks down 24% in decade, 62% for worst
Health Plan Reports Major Drop in Heart Attacks