Progress Against Heart Deaths Starting to Wane

Progress Against Heart Deaths Starting to Wane

Obesity, diabetes epidemics may be to blame, doctors say

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- America's war on heart disease and stroke may have suffered a setback.

A new study warns that the rate of decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke has stalled.

"It is likely that the dual epidemics of obesity and diabetes, which began around 1985, are the major contributors to the deceleration in the decline of cardiovascular disease, heart disease and stroke death rates," said lead researcher Dr. Stephen Sidney. He is director of research clinics at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, in Oakland.

"If these trends continue, important public health goals, such as those set by the American Heart Association to reduce cardiovascular and stroke mortality by 20 percent from 2010 to 2020, may not be reached," he added.

The researchers found the annual death rate dropped nearly 4 percent for heart disease and nearly 5 percent for stroke from 2000 to 2011. However, those rates dropped less than 1 percent from 2011 to 2014. Through this time, the annual rate of decline in cancer deaths remained stable, at nearly 2 percent.

The slowing in the decline of the death rate from heart disease and stroke occurred in men and women, and in most racial and ethnic groups, the investigators noted.

Before 2011, it was anticipated that the death rate from heart disease would become lower than the cancer death rate, and heart disease would no longer be the leading cause of death in the United States for the first time in nearly 100 years, Sidney explained.

But, "because of the deceleration in the decline of heart mortality, it still remains the leading cause of death," Sidney said.

To trace trends in deaths from heart disease and stroke, Sidney's team used data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The overall decrease in deaths from heart disease and stroke has been attributed to better medical care and more people having their blood pressure and cholesterol under control, as well as fewer people smoking, the researchers said.

"Efforts from the cardiovascular health care community have had an immense impact on the decline of cardiovascular death rates," said study co-author Dr. Jamal Rana. He is a Kaiser Permanente cardiologist and clinical adjunct researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.

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