Heart disease is still the most common cause of death in the US, with key risk factors continuing to rise, researchers have said.
The most recent data from the American Heart Association has shown that there were 10,000 more cardiovascular disease-related deaths in 2022 compared to 2021, going from 931,578 to 941,652.
Dr Keith Churchwell, Volunteer President of the American Heart Association, said: “Did you know that in the US, someone dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds?
“Nearly 2,500 people in the US 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.”
He added: “Too many people are dying from heart disease and from stroke, which remains the fifth leading cause of death.
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“Together, they kill more people than all cancers and accidental deaths – the #2 and #3 causes of death – combined.”
Concerns have also been raised about kidney disease.
Dr Seth Martin, American Heart Association volunteer and Chair of the Association’s Statistical Update Writing Committee, said: “Kidney disease has actually been on the rise over the past decade.
“In our report, we noted a significant increase in prevalence of chronic kidney disease among Medicare beneficiaries from 9.2% in 2011 in 14.2% in 2021.”
He added: “Additionally, the global prevalence of kidney disease has increased more than 27% in relative terms since 2010.
“The reason this is important is that, first, cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to kidney disease. Second, the risk factors of these diseases are closely interrelated.”
Latest figures have revealed that roughly 47% of the adults in the US have high blood pressure and more than 72% have obesity.
In addition, new data has identified that a total of 57% of adults in the US are living with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
Fellow volunteer Dr Dhruv Kazi said: “Although we have made a lot of progress against cardiovascular disease in the past few decades, there is a lot more work that remains to be done.
“If recent trends continue, hypertension and obesity will each affect more than 180 million US adults by 2050, whereas the prevalence of diabetes will climb to more than 80 million. And over the same time period, we expect to see a 300% increase health care costs related to cardiovascular disease. It is important to acknowledge that, although cardiovascular disease affects us all, it doesn’t affect us all equally.”
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Dr Kazi added: “For instance, there is wide variation in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure by sex and race/ethnicity.”
According to the research, Black women are most at risk of being obese, with 57.9% of this demographic in the US living with obesity. Meanwhile, Hispanic men are the most likely to have diabetes with a rate of 14.5%.
Latha Palaniappan, American Heart Association volunteer, said: “In the update, we noted calculations that found excess weight contributes to as many as 1,300 additional deaths per day in the US, nearly 500,000 per year. It lowers life expectancy by as much as 2.4 years compared to a healthy weight.
“The impact on lives lost is twice as high for women, and higher for Black adults than for White adults.”
Latha Palaniappan added: “It’s alarming to note that excess weight now costs us even more lives than smoking – as smoking rates have actually fallen in recent years. Being overweight is the new smoking when it comes to health threats.”
Read the annual update in the journal Circulation.
