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CDC: Overall heart disease death rate fell, increased in certain subtypes
In a letter published in JAMA, researchers from the CDC reported that mortality rates for heart disease overall have declined, but increases were seen in certain subsets.
Researchers studied data from the CDC’s WONDER database from the National Vital Statistics System and identified 7,102,778 heart disease deaths in adults aged 35 years or older from 2000 to 2010. ICD-10 codes were used to identify CHD, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, valvular heart disease, arrhythmia, pulmonary heart disease or other heart disease.
Annually, the mortality rates declined for total heart disease (−3.8%; 95% CI, −4 to −3.5) and CHD (−5.1%; 95% CI, −5.3 to −4.8). Although mortality from most other subtypes also declined, mortality increased annually for hypertensive heart disease (1.3%; 95% CI, 0.8-1.8) and arrhythmia (1%; 95% CI, 0.3-1.7). Although the hypertensive heart disease rate increased among non-Hispanic whites and was unchanged among non-Hispanic blacks, it remained much higher among non-Hispanic blacks in 2010 (50.9 per 100,000 vs 17.9 per 100,000 among non-Hispanic whites).
Excluding CHD and other heart disease, the leading cause of heart disease-related death in 2010 was hypertensive heart disease among adults aged 35 to 54 years (12.1%) and those aged 55 to 74 years (6.7%). Among those aged at least 75 years, HF was the cause of death (12.2%).
“Despite a continued decrease in overall [heart disease] mortality, considerable burden still exists,” the researchers wrote. “Public health and clinical communities should continue to develop and rigorously apply evidence-based interventions to prevent and treat CHD as well as other [heart disease] subtypes such as [hypertensive heart disease] and arrhythmia.”
Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.