Heart Disease Mortality in the United States, 1970 to 2022.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Serial cross-sectional population-based mortality registry analysis (CDC WONDER/NVSS)
PubMed 40557798 · doi:10.1161/JAHA.124.038644
What was done
The authors analyzed national mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) and the National Vital Statistics System for US adults aged 25 years and older between 1970 and 2022. They evaluated trends in absolute death counts and age-adjusted mortality rates for total heart disease, ischemic heart disease (including acute myocardial infarction), and other heart disease subtypes.
What was found
From 1970 to 2022: - Overall age-adjusted heart disease mortality decreased by 66% (from 761 to 258 per 100,000). - Ischemic heart disease accounted for 91% of all heart disease deaths in 1970, dropping to 53% in 2022. - Age-adjusted mortality decreased by 89% for acute myocardial infarction (from 354 to 40 per 100,000) and 81% for all ischemic heart disease (from 693 to 135 per 100,000). - Age-adjusted mortality for other heart disease subtypes increased by 81% (from 68 to 123 per 100,000), driven by increases in heart failure (146% increase), hypertensive heart disease (106% increase), and arrhythmias (450% increase).
Why it matters
While five decades of public health and clinical advances dramatically reduced ischemic heart disease deaths, the burden of non-ischemic conditions such as heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, and arrhythmias has risen substantially.
Limits
The total sample size (number of deaths) is not reported in the abstract. The study relies on aggregate vital statistics data, which are subject to death certificate misclassification and shifts in diagnostic definitions and ICD coding revisions between 1970 and 2022. Risk factors, clinical variables, and demographic breakdowns are not detailed in the abstract.
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