A new study shows heart attack deaths in the US have dropped nearly 90 percent over 50 years – but other heart conditions are on the rise.
Published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine analyzed age-adjusted heart disease death rates among adults 25 and older from 1970 to 2022.
Researchers found that overall heart disease deaths dropped 66 percent over 50 years, mainly due to an 89 percent decline in heart attack deaths.
In 1970, heart attacks caused over half of heart disease deaths but, by 2022, they accounted for less than one-third.
“This evolution over the past 50 years reflects incredible successes in the way heart attacks and other types of ischemic heart disease are managed,” said Sara King, M.D., the study’s first author and a second-year internal medicine resident at Stanford School of Medicine in California, in a news release.
“There have been great strides made in helping people survive initial acute cardiac events that were once considered a death sentence,” she added.
Advances like more bystander CPR, better awareness of early heart attack symptoms, improved treatments, and no-smoking laws have helped reduce heart attack deaths.
However, experts warn that as more people survive heart attacks, other forms of heart disease are now on the rise.
Deaths by Arrhythmia, when the heart beats too fast, too slow, or irregularly, increased 450 percent, while heart failure deaths rose 146 percent.
Hypertensive heart disease deaths rose 106%, driven by long-term high blood pressure. Researchers link these rising causes of death to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure in the U.S.
Obesity in the U.S. rose from 15 percent in the 1970s to 40 percent by 2022. Nearly half of adults now have type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure rates grew from 30 percent in 1978 to almost 50 percent in 2022.
“The focus now must be on helping people age with strong, healthy hearts by preventing events, and prevention can start as early as childhood,” said senior author Latha Palaniappan, M.D., associate dean for research and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
The American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8” outlines key steps to reduce heart disease risk: eat healthy, manage weight, quit smoking, exercise more, improve sleep, and maintain healthy cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar.
