CVD will be ‘even bigger threat to global health and the world economy’ if unchecked
Key takeaways:
- The American Heart Association has issued its 2025 heart disease and stroke statistical update.
- In the U.S., there is one death from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds.
The American Heart Association has issued the 2025 update to its annual heart disease and stroke statistics report, detailing recent trends in CV-related morbidity and mortality.
The statistical update, published in Circulation on behalf of the AHA Council on Epidemiology and Prevention Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Committee, provides an overview of statistics related to CVD, stroke and CV risk factors as related to the AHA’s Life’s Essential 8.
“Did you know that in the U.S., someone dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds? Nearly 2,500 people in the U.S. die from cardiovascular disease every day. Those are alarming statistics to me — and they should be alarming for all of us, because it’s likely many among those whom we lose will be our friends and loved ones,” Keith Churchwell, MD, FAHA, associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, adjunct associate professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine and volunteer president of the AHA, said in a press release. “Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke, which remains the fifth-leading cause of death. Together, they kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths — the No. 2 and No. 3 causes of death — combined.”
Prevalence of CVD and adverse outcomes
The authors of the document stated that nearly 40% of U.S. CV deaths in 2022 were attributable to CHD, and the age-adjusted mortality rate attributable to CVD was 224.3 per 100,000 people. The highest age-adjusted CVD mortality rate was observed among in Black men — 379.7 per 100,000 people — and the lowest was observed among Asian women, at 104.9 per 100,000 people, according to the document.
The researchers estimated that the direct costs of CVD in the U.S. increased from approximately $189.7 billion in 2012-2013 to $233.3 billion in 2020-2021.
An area where the researchers reported recent improvement was survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest. Using data from Get with The Guidelines–Resuscitation, the researchers reported modest year-to-year improvement in both return of spontaneous circulation (adjusted OR per year = 1.04) and survival to hospital discharge (aOR per year = 1.03).
Procedural volumes also changed over recent years, with transcatheter aortic valve replacement volumes exceeding all forms of surgical AVR, with the median age of patients undergoing TAVR being age 80 years compared with 84 years after the procedure was initially approved by the FDA.
In 2023, 4,545 heart transplantations were performed in the U.S., the most ever, according to the document.
Changes in CVD risk factors over time
“Heart disease was once considered a death sentence, but thanks to the many advances in clinical diagnosis and treatment, people are able to live longer, healthier lives even after a cardiovascular event,” Churchwell said in the release. “Certainly, any medical or clinical therapy that can treat the risk factors that contribute to CVD are essential. More importantly, I would say that we need to stop these risk factors in their tracks, keep people healthy throughout their lifespan. That will only be possible with a strong emphasis on early prevention and equitable health access for all.”
For every 1 standard deviation increase in the AHA Life’s Essential 8 score — not smoking, regular physical activity, good diet, proper sleep and control of weight, cholesterol, BP and glucose — there was an approximately 36% lower odds of CVD, according to the document.
Although adult and youth cigarette smoking has declined in the U.S. in the past 2 decades, the prevalence of e-cigarette use in the past 30 days among middle and high school students was 4.6% and 10%, respectively, with 89.4% young e-cigarette users reporting use of flavored products and 25.2% daily use.
Physical activity among U.S. adults did not change much from 2020 to 2022, with approximately 48% reporting adequate weekly levels minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, vigorous aerobic activity or an equivalent combination, according to the document.
Prevalence of a healthy dietary pattern, as measured by the Healthy Eating Index, slightly improved in the past 10 years, with the current average index score of 59 out of 100.
As of 2022, all U.S. states had an obesity prevalence of more than 20% and the overall rates of cholesterol evaluation in adults with dyslipidemia did not change, according to the document.
In 2022 in the U.S., the researchers reported hypertension prevalence of 28.5% among people aged 20 to 44 years; 58.6% among those aged 45 to 64 years; and 76.5% among those aged at least 65 years.
In addition, CVD remains the leading cause of death among people with diabetes and reported risk factor control in this population remains suboptimal, with 20% or less at recommended HbA1c, BP and lipid levels, according to the document.
In a related editorial, Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MSc, MS, associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology, director of the cardiac critical care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, discussed how, despite living in an ever-changing world, focus on heart health and the leading cause of death worldwide, should not be lost.
“Given the expansive nature of the Statistical Update, any attempt to summarize its findings would be a fool’s errand,” Kazi wrote. “The year 2025 marks the end of a decade characterized by geopolitical and economic instability, a global pandemic, and the consequences of a rapidly warming planet. In this world of polycrises, it is important that we not lose sight that CVD is still the leading cause of mortality worldwide and, if unchecked, will become an even bigger threat to global health and the world economy in the future.”
References:
- Heart disease remains leading cause of death as key health risk factors continue to rise. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/heart-disease-remains-leading-cause-of-death-as-key-health-risk-factors-continue-to-rise. Published Jan. 27, 2025. Accessed Jan. 27, 2025.
- Kazi DS. Circulation. 2025;doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.073826.
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