Major heart disease decrease in the US

by Stepy — November 14, 2016

Great news in health, as there has been a major heart disease decrease in the US.

From 1983 to 2011, the incidence of coronary heart disease in the U.S. has declined nearly 20 percent.

Prevention of heart disease risk factors have been paramount in the United States, especially with heart disease being America’s leading cause of death. However, little is known about how efforts to prevent heart disease have worked out.

Michael J. Pencina, Ph.D., of the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and colleagues gathered patient data from 5 different studies found in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center.

The study press release outlined the following:

Two analytic data sets were created: 1 set with baseline data collected from 1983 through 1990 (early era) with follow-up from 1996 through 2001, and l set with baseline data collected from 1996 through 2002 (late era) with follow-up from 2007 through 2011.

The study included characteristics of 14,009 pairs of participants in the 2 groups. Participants ages 40 to 79 years who were free of cardiovascular disease were selected from each era and matched on age, race, and sex. Each group was followed for up to 12 years for new-onset CHD (i.e., heart attack, coronary death, angina, coronary insufficiency).

“Examination of adults from 5 large observational cohort studies led to several findings. First, the incidence of CHD declined almost 20 percent over time. Second, although the prevalence of diabetes increased, the fraction of CHD attributable to diabetes decreased over time, due to attenuation of the association between diabetes and CHD. This may have resulted from changing definitions and awareness of diabetes, improvements in diabetes treatment and control, and/or better primary prevention. Third, there was no evidence that the strength of the association between smoking, systolic blood pressure, or dyslipidemia and CHD changed between eras, nor was there evidence that the proportion of CHD due to these factors changed. This underscores the importance of continued prevention efforts targeting these risk factors,” the authors write.

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