CDC survey: Statin use increased 23% over past two decades

A CDC survey found that the percentage of adults 45 years and older who use statins increased from 2% between 1988 and 1994 to 25% between 2005 and 2008. Further findings from the study indicated that half of men aged 65 to 74 years had taken a statin in between 2005 and 2008 compared with more than one-third of women in the same age group.

The 34^th annual report of the national health survey was released last week CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Entitled “Health, United States, 2010,” the report compiled health data from federal and state health agencies, and included an in-depth feature on death and dying.

While not exclusively focused on cardiology, this year’s report included a number of CV highlights. For example, in 2007, the report found that heart disease was the leading cause of the death in the United States, followed by cancer. Exactly one quarter of all death in America in 2007 due to heart disease.

Despite being the leading cause of death, the heart disease death rate for adults 65 years of age and older decreased by 26% to 1,309 deaths per 100,000 population. Heart disease accounted for 28% of deaths for adults in this age group in 2007.

The report also observed that hypertension, defined as either having high BP or as taking antihypertensive medications, increased with age. Between 2005 and 2008, roughly 34% of adults aged 45 to 54 years had hypertension, vs. 67% of men and 80% of women aged 75 years and older.

Additional CV findings included:

In 2009, 46% of men and 31% of women aged 75 years and older had ever been told by a physician or other health professional that they had heart disease. Among those aged 75 years and older, prevalence rose between 1999 and 2009 among men but not among women.
Between 1988-1994 and 2005-2008, the percentage of adults aged 20 years and older with high serum total cholesterol level (defined as at least 240 mg/dL) declined from 20% to 15%.

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