While the annual statistics update aims to be a contemporary update of annual heart disease and stroke statistics over the past year, it also examines trends over time, Dr. Tsao explains in the podcast.
“One noteworthy point is that we saw a decline in the rate of cardiovascular mortality over the past three decades or so until about 2010. But over the past decade now, we’re also seeing a rise in these numbers,” she said.
This could be due to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and poor hypertension control, as well as other lifestyle behaviors, Tsao said.
Key risk factor data
Each year, the statistical update gauges the cardiovascular health of Americans by tracking seven key health factors and behaviors that increase risk for heart disease and stroke. Below is a snapshot of the latest risk factor data.
Smoking
In 2019, smoking was the leading risk factor for years of life lost to premature death and the third leading risk factor for years of life lived with disability or injury.
According to the 2020 surgeon general’s report on smoking cessation, more than 480,000 Americans die as a result of cigarette smoking, and more than 41,000 die of secondhand smoke exposure each year (roughly 1 in 5 deaths annually).
One in 7 adults are current smokers, 1 in 6 female adults are current smokers, and 1 in 5 high school students use e-cigarettes.
Physical inactivity
In 2018, 25.4% of U.S. adults did not engage in leisure-time physical activity, and only 24.0% met the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans for both aerobic and muscle strengthening.
Among U.S. high school students in 2019, only 44.1% were physically active for 60 minutes or more on at least 5 days of the week.
Nutrition
While there is some evidence that Americans are improving their diet, fewer than 10% of U.S. adults met guidelines for whole grain, whole fruit, and nonstarchy vegetable consumption each day in 2017–2018.
Overweight/obesity
The prevalence of obesity among adults increased from 1999–2000 through 2017–2018 from 30.5% to 42.4%. Overall prevalence of obesity and severe obesity in U.S. youth 2 to 19 years of age increased from 13.9% to 19.3% and 2.6% to 6.1% between 1999–2000 and 2017–2018.
Cholesterol
Close to 94 million (38.1%) U.S. adults have total cholesterol of 200 mg/dL or higher, according to 2015–2018 data; about 28.0 million (11.5%) have total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or higher; and 27.8% have high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (130 mg/dL or higher).
Diabetes
In 2019, 87,647 U.S. deaths were attributed to diabetes; data show that 9.8 million U.S. adults have undiagnosed diabetes, 28.2 million have diagnosed diabetes, and 113.6 million have prediabetes.
Hypertension
A total of 121.5 million (47.3%) U.S. adults have hypertension, based on 2015–2018 data. In 2019, 102,072 U.S. deaths were primarily attributable to hypertension.
This statistical update was prepared by a volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Disclosures for the writing committee are listed with the original article.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.