Heart disease and stroke statistics--2011 update: a report from the American Heart Association.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional national survey data and vital statistics surveillance (design analogy).
PubMed 21160056 · doi:10.1161/CIR.0b013e3182009701
What was done
The American Heart Association, with federal agencies including the CDC and NIH, synthesized US national mortality data from 2007 and nationally representative survey data (including NHANES 2005–2008) to report updated prevalence, incidence, mortality, and risk factor metrics for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke.
What was found
In 2007, CVD caused 33.6% (813,804 of 2,243,712) of all US deaths, with an overall CVD death rate of 251.2 per 100,000 (405.9 in Black males, 294.0 in white males, 286.1 in Black females, and 205.7 in white females). From 1997 to 2007, CVD death rates fell 27.8%, and stroke death rates fell 44.8% (absolute stroke deaths fell 14.7%). Coronary heart disease caused 406,351 deaths, with an estimated 785,000 new and 470,000 recurrent coronary events annually. Stroke accounted for ≈1 in 18 deaths, with ≈795,000 total events per year. Hypertension affected 33.5% (76.4 million) of adults ≥20 years (44% in Black adults); 80% were aware, 71% used medication, and 48% of aware individuals had blood pressure controlled. Hypercholesterolemia (≥240 mg/dL) affected 15.0% (33.6 million) of adults; diagnosed diabetes affected 8.0% (18.3 million), undiagnosed diabetes affected 7.1 million, and prediabetes affected 36.8%. Overweight/obesity affected 67.3% of adults (33.7% obese) and 31.9% of children aged 2–19 years (16.3% obese). In 2008, 23.1% of adult men and 18.3% of adult women were cigarette smokers.
Why it matters
This report establishes authoritative national benchmarks for tracking US cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, and cardiometabolic risk factor trends to guide public health targets and clinical policy.
Limits
The data are descriptive and observational, relying in part on death certificate diagnostic coding accuracy and self-reported survey responses. The findings reflect US population data and cannot establish causal mechanisms. The abstract text is truncated at the end.
Cited by
- supports In the United States, someone has a heart attack approximately every 30 seconds.