AHA: Slowdown in CV deaths after pandemic, but troubling trends persist
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Key takeaways:
- CV deaths rose in 2021, but at a slower rate than in 2020, when researchers saw the largest single-year increase since 2015.
- Most survey respondents did not identify heart disease as a leading cause of death.
New data from the American Heart Association show the overall number of CV-related deaths again rose year over year from 2020 to 2021, though the increase was far smaller than what was observed the previous year.
Data from the AHA’s 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data show the overall number of CV-related deaths was 931,578, an increase of less than 3,000 from the 928,741 deaths reported last year. As Healio previously reported, last year’s statistical update noted the largest single-year increase in CV-related deaths since 2015, a troubling trend that researchers said was likely a reflection of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data were derived from Martin SS, et al. Circulation. 2024;doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001209.
“This increase in CV-related deaths that happened in recent years was observed for both men and women and set us back from the progress we had made,” Healio | Cardiology Today Editorial Board Member Seth S. Martin, MD, MHS, FAHA, cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and volunteer chair of the statistical update writing committee, said during an interview. “I am cautiously optimistic because the percentage increase in the age-adjusted death rate was 4% for this year’s report as compared with [last year’s] 4.6%. We find that age-adjusted rate useful because of the aging of the population, but if you also look at the absolute number of CV-related deaths, the increase was more modest this year, up by a little less than 3,000 vs. more than 50,000 for the prior year’s report. We do not like to see an increase, of course, but it is an increase of lower magnitude. These recent trends should be taken seriously, and although we should be cautiously optimistic, I do not think we can get too comfortable because a lot of work remains to be done.”
Additionally, data from a 2023 Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of the AHA, released along with the statistics report, showed only 49% of people named heart disease as the leading cause of death, with 18% of respondents listing cancer as the top cause and 16% saying they did not know the leading cause of death.
Nearly half of all Americans have CVD
CV deaths include deaths from CHD (40.3%), stroke (17.5%), other minor CVD causes combined (17.1%), high BP (13.4%), HF (9.1%) and diseases of the arteries (2.6%).
In addition to an overview on CVD statistics, the 567-page report includes data on CV risk factors such as adverse pregnancy outcomes, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, dietary health and nutrition, smoking and sleep. The report was published in Circulation.
The report also noted that the age-adjusted death rate from CVD increased to 233.3 per 100,000, up 4% from 224.4 per 100,000 reported last year, whereas the rate had increased 4.6% in the previous year. Last year’s increase was the first increase in age-adjusted death rates seen in many years, the researchers wrote.
The report also noted that heart disease and stroke “currently claim more lives each year than cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined.” CHD accounted for 375,476 of the total 931,578 CVD deaths in 2021.
Data also showed that nearly half of all Americans (48.6%) have some type of CVD, most notably high BP, which affects approximately 46.7% of U.S. adults. During the past decade, the age-adjusted death rate from hypertension increased 65.6% and the actual number of deaths rose 91.2%.
“As we look ahead, there will be increasing focus on implementation science and the novel strategies using digital health tools and other creative approaches to make sure that all that we know reaches the U.S. population at large, and also the world,” Martin told Healio.
Global reach of CVD
New this year, the AHA increased emphasis on health equity statistics and added a Global Fact Sheets supplement and toolkit, with statistics by race, ethnicity, age and sex translated into seven languages. The report also has an expanded focus on global heart disease and stroke statistics.
“Every year, we try to make this report better,” Martin told Healio. “Opportunities to improve CV health are shared globally. We made the purposeful decision to increase the emphasis on global data, so much so that we now have ‘global’ in the title of our document. These are statistics that are meant to help serve all of the world.”
This year’s data were published during the AHA’s centennial year, which Martin called a period for reflection on progress made against CVD and priorities moving forward.
“Our statistics document is a critical compass to guide us on the priorities to move forward in the fight against CVD,” Martin told Healio. “Our document does highlight much to celebrate in terms of progress. Since 1950, there has been a 60% decline in death rates due to CVD and the number of people dying from heart attacks has fallen from one in two to about one in 8.5. Looking at risk factors, cigarette smoking has fallen from more than 40% of U.S. adults in the mid-1960s to about one in 10 people today. If we zoom out and look over the decades, there have been big improvements. But there is clearly more work to be done.”
The report also highlighted the cost of CVD in the U.S. According to data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS; 2019-2020), the annual direct and indirect cost of CVD in the U.S. is an estimated $422.3 billion, including $254.3 billion in direct costs and $168 billion in lost future productivity attributed to premature CVD mortality in 2019 to 2020.
Reference:
More than half of U.S. adults don’t know heart disease is leading cause of death, despite 100-year reign. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/more-than-half-of-u-s-adults-dont-know-heart-disease-is-leading-cause-of-death-despite-100-year-reign. Published Jan. 24, 2024. Accessed Jan. 24, 2024.
For more information:
Seth S. Martin, MD, MHS, FAHA, can be reached at smart100@jhmi.edu; X (Twitter): @SethShayMartin.
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