Cardiovascular disease (CVD) as an underlying cause of death accounted for more than one-third (36.3 percent) of all deaths in the United States in 2004, as per the most recent data from the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics - 2007 Update. The Update will be available in the Dec. 29 online issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association at http://www.americanheart.org/statistics.

The Update provides the most recent statistics about cardiovascular diseases, risk factors, therapys, quality of care and costs of care. The American Heart Association does not generate the data, but synthesizes it from a number of sources and provides it online without charge for government policymakers, physicians, researchers, educators and the public to use, making the Update a unique national - and even international - resource.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure and congenital cardiovascular defects. Counting only heart disease, this has been the leading cause of death in the United States every year since 1900 except during the 1918 flu epidemic.

A look across the states (including the District of Columbia) shows state and regional differences in the burden of CVD based on 2003 data, the most recent year for which state vital statistics are available. For CVD deaths as a whole, Minnesota had the lowest death rate at 221.2 (per 100,000 population), while Mississippi had the highest at 405.9. For coronary heart disease deaths, Hawaii has the lowest rate (96.0), while Oklahoma carries the highest (228.1). New York has the lowest state death rate for stroke (35.0), but is second highest in coronary heart disease deaths (213.4), just behind Oklahoma.


Posted by: Sandra    Source

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