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Stroke fell to No. 5 cause of death in US in 2013
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Stroke fell from the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States to the fifth-leading cause of death in 2013, according to a report from the CDC.
Heart disease remained the leading cause of death in the nation, according to the report.
Kenneth D. Kochanek, MA, from the division of vital statistics at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues compiled mortality data on death and death rates for the United States in 2013 by demographic and medical characteristics.
The 10 leading causes of death for 2013 remained the same as for 2012, but stroke was surpassed for fourth place by unintentional injuries, which killed 1,579 more people than stroke in 2013, according to the report.
From 2012 to 2013, age-adjusted death rates declined by 0.4% for heart disease, 2% for cancer, 1.9% for stroke and 1.3% for Alzheimer’s disease, whereas they increased by 1.4% for chronic lower respiratory diseases and 10.4% for influenza and pneumonia, and did not change significantly for unintentional injuries, kidney disease, diabetes and suicide, according to the report.
Elliott Antman
“The fact that the death rate is declining from this terrible and devastating disease is gratifying news,” Elliott Antman, MD, president of the American Heart Association, said in a press release.
“These statistics are a tribute to the many courageous survivors, health care professionals, researchers, volunteers and everyone else committed to fighting stroke,” Antman, professor of medicine and associate dean for clinical/translational research at Harvard Medical School and senior physician in the cardiovascular division of Brigham & Women’s Hospital, said in the release. “Still, far too many people are dying from stroke, and too many people are suffering greatly from this disease.”
Ralph Sacco
Ralph Sacco, MD, past president of the AHA, said in the release that the decline might be attributed to improvements in treatment and prevention.
“There are more stroke centers now operating in the US, and the acute care of stroke is improving,” Sacco, chairman of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said in the release. “However, although mortality from stroke is dropping, we know that the number of people having strokes in the US is rising each year due to the aging of our population and other signs that strokes have increased in younger groups. Stroke is more disabling than it is fatal.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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