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Mortality burden gap narrows between heart disease, cancer in US
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Although heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. population since 1950, the mortality burden gap between heart disease and cancer narrowed from 1968 to 2012, according to a National Center for Health Statistics data brief.
The mortally burden from both diseases also varied across demographic and geographic groups.
“The number of deaths due to both heart disease and cancer has increased since 1950, largely due to the aging of the U.S. population,” Melonie Heron, PhD, and Robert N. Anderson, PhD, from the division of vital statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics, wrote. “However, in the 1980s, the number of deaths due to heart disease began to decline, whereas the number of deaths due to cancer continued to increase. The result has been a substantial decrease in the gap between the two causes.”
The number of heart disease deaths decreased over time, from a peak of 771,169 in 1985 to 596,577 in 2011. Conversely, the number of cancer deaths nearly tripled, from 210,733 in 1950 to 576,691 in 2011.
“While a leading-cause crossover seemed likely in the early 2010s, a reversal in the trend in heart disease deaths in 2012 kept heart disease in the top spot in the rankings,” the researchers wrote.
The number of deaths due to heart disease increased by 3% from 2011 to 2014, whereas cancer deaths increased by 2.6%.
In 2000, two states — Alaska and Minnesota — reported cancer to be their leading cause of death over heart disease; however, as of 2014, cancer was the leading cause of death in 22 states.
The researchers found that the gap in mortality burden between heart disease and cancer narrowed substantially among non-Hispanic white individuals, from gap of 136,265 deaths in 2000 to 19,492 deaths in 2012. The gap also narrowed among black individuals, from a gap of 15,316 deaths in 2000 to 1,437 deaths in 2012. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for both groups.
Conversely, cancer became the leading cause of death among non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander individuals in 2000 (9,069 cancer deaths vs. 8,949 heart disease deaths) and among Hispanic individuals in 2009 (29,935 cancer deaths vs. 29,611 heart disease deaths).
From 2000 to 2014, cancer deaths increased 79.6% in the non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander population and 72.2% in the Hispanic population. – by Kristie L. Kahl
Reference :
Changes in the leading cause of death: Recent patterns in heart disease and cancer mortality. NCHS data brief, no 254. Available at: www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db254.pdf. Accessed August 30, 2016.