The annual report by the American Heart Association and other government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, provides the most recent statistics on cardiovascular disease risk factors related to the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential Eight, which includes health behaviors such as diet, physical activity, weight, and smoking, as well as other contributing health factors such as cholesterol, glucose levels, and blood pressure.
This study is an indispensable resource for healthcare professionals and policymakers, health advocates, researchers, and members of the general public seeking up-to-date and credible information on cardiovascular health.
According to an estimate by the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease will be responsible for 928,713 deaths in 2020, 580,994 of which will occur among those under the age of 85. The ratio of male to female fatalities was roughly same. In 2020, heart disease was responsible for 696,937 deaths, with more over 400,000 cases occurring in those younger than 85.
Between 2013 and 2020, youth between the ages of 16 and 19 in the United States (U.S.) had an overall cardiovascular health score of 73.6 on the basis of the eight Life’s Essential components, while adults scored 65.2. Enhanced cardiovascular health was associated with a 5.5-year increase in male life expectancy and a 4.2-year increase in female life expectancy.
However, between 2019 and 2020, the average life expectancy at birth declined from 78.8 years to 77 years due to over one million COVID-19-related deaths. In the United States, the cumulative COVID-19-related death rate was about 292 per 100,000 persons in metropolitan regions and 372 per 100,000 people in nonmetropolitan areas.
Despite the drop in cigarette usage among kids and adults in the United States, Alaskan Native, American Indian, gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults had a greater prevalence of tobacco use in 2020 compared to White and heterosexual adults. In 2019 and 2020, only 20.6% of children aged 6 to 17 will be physically active for more than 60 minutes per day, according to the survey.
In 2018, according to self-reported figures, 54.2% of individuals met the physical activity recommendations of 150 minutes or more of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes or more of intense physical activity each week.
Diet or nutrition was one of the four domains with the lowest Life Essential scores, ranging between 23.8 and 47.7 across different demographic groups. Diet scores were 61.1 and 28.5, respectively, for children aged 2 to 5 and 12 to 19 years.
However, the prevalence of overweight was 36.8%, and the prevalence of obesity was 19.8% among U.S. adolescents and children aged two to 19. The highest prevalence was reported among non-Hispanic Black females and Hispanic males. 71.2 percent and 41.4 percent of adults over the age of 20 were overweight or obese, respectively.
Between 2017 and 2020, 5% of teenage males and 4.6% of adolescent females had elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) values, whereas 25.6% of adult males and 25.4% of adult females had elevated LDL-C levels. In addition, 50.4% of males and 43% of females over the age of 20 in the United States have hypertension, equivalent to 122.4 million adults with high blood pressure between 2017 and 2020.
In addition, based on data from 2017 to 2020, close to 29.3 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes. The most prevalent early diabetes-related cardiovascular consequence was peripheral artery disease (16.2%), followed by heart failure (14.1%), angina (11.9%), nonfatal myocardial infarction (11.5%), and stroke (10.0%).
As per a report by News Medical Life Sciences, between 2017 and 2020, the prevalence of cardiovascular illnesses, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, hypertension, and stroke, among U.S. individuals over the age of 20 was 48.6%.
The mortality statistics for the year 2020 indicated that cardiovascular disease and stroke caused more deaths than lower respiratory diseases and cancer. Between 2010 and 2020, the global cardiovascular disease death rate increased by 18.71%.
Overall, the American Heart Association’s updated comprehensive report on heart disease and stroke is a comprehensive resource for healthcare professionals, policymakers, researchers, and interested citizens on a wide range of cardiovascular disease prevalence and mortality rates, risk factors, associated outcomes, and other serious health conditions such as renal and metabolic diseases.
