Data show significant decline in acute MI deaths across ethnicities since 1999
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NEW ORLEANS — An analysis of CDC data shows a closing of the gap in race disparities related to acute MI death during the past 20 years, as well as a decline in acute MI deaths in the U.S. overall, researchers reported.
The findings, presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session, indicate that age-adjusted rates of death attributed to acute MI fell by an average of more than 4% per year across all race groups between 1999 and 2020.
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“It’s good news,” Muchi Ditah Chobufo, MD, a cardiology fellow at West Virginia University, said in a press release. “Researchers often highlight the bad news, but people should know that even if we’re not there yet, we’re making progress in the right direction. I think the reasons are multifactorial, spanning all the way from health-promoting and prevention activities through treatment during and after a heart attack.”
Chobufo and colleagues analyzed data from the CDC’s Wide‐ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER; 1999-2020) multiple causes of death database, extracting ethnic-specific age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) per 100,000 people from death certificates with any mention of acute MI.
After a statistically significant decline in acute MI-related mortality in the U.S. across all ethnic groups from 1999 to 2019, the researchers observed an uptick in 2020.
The overall acute MI AAMR was 52.4 per 100,000 people (95% CI, 52.4-52.5), decreasing from 87.4 (95% CI, 87-87.7) per 100,000 people in 1999 to 38.2 (95% CI, 38-38.4) per 100,000 people in 2020, with an average annual percentage change of –4.9% (95% CI, –4.9 to –4.1).
The AAMR decreased from 86.7 per 100,000 people (95% CI, 86.3-87.1) in 1999 to 38 (95% CI, 37.8-38.2) per 100,000 people in 2020 for white adults and from 104.1 (95% CI, 102.8-105.4) per 100,000 people in 1999 to 46 (95% CI, 46-47.4) per 100,000 people for Black adults. The average annual percentage change was –4.3% for white adults (95% CI, –4.7 to –3.9), –4.7% for Black adults (95% CI, –5.1 to –4.2), –4.1% for Asian American or Pacific Islander adults (95% CI, –4.7 to –3.6), and –4.2% for Native American and Alaska Native adults (95% CI, –4.7 to –3.8).
“For everyone involved in providing the best care to these patients, they should know that they’ve been doing a great job,” Chobufo said in the release. “But that doesn’t mean we can stop. Even one death is one too many, and even a disparity of one is a disparity of one too many. We can push even further and try to eliminate those gaps.”
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Chobufo MD, et al. Abstract 1051-03. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 4-6, 2023; New Orleans (hybrid meeting).
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