A report that has been put together by the American Heart Association (AHA) has given some insights into the latest statistics on outcomes of cardiovascular diseases for 2023 and its connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The new report revealed that cardiovascular diseases contributed to around 928713 deaths in 2020 and nearly 580994 people who lost their lives were below 85 years old. The American Heart Association report showed that the percentage of male and female deaths was roughly alike. Health experts said that around 696937 deaths related to heart disease took place in 2020 and more than 400000 individuals who lost their lives were below 85 years. The findings of the report have been released in the journal known as Circulation. The American Heart Association has joined hands with other government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to come up with its annual report. The report shows the latest trends in risk factors for cardiovascular disease relating to the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential Eight which includes health actions like physical activity, weight, diet, smoking, and other contributing health parameters such as glucose levels, cholesterol, and blood pressure. Health experts said that the total cardiovascular health scores based on the AHA’s Essential eight elements had been 73.6 for children who were in the age range of 16 to 19 years, and 65.2 for adults in the US between 2013 and 2020. They found that elevated cardiovascular health scores were linked to a boost in life expectancy by 5.5 years for men and 4.2 years for women.
The report revealed that the median life span at birth reduced from 78.8 years to 77 years between 2019 and 2020 due to more than one million deaths that were caused by COVID-19 infection. As per the data obtained from the report, the rate of collective COVID-19 deaths was around 292 per 100,000 individuals in urban areas while 392 per 100,000 individuals in non-urban regions in the United States. The authors of the report stated that though the usage of cigarettes has reduced among young adults in the country, there was a greater prevalence of tobacco use in the American Indian, Alaskan Native, homosexuals, and bisexual adults than among White and heterosexual people. The report also showed that in 2019 and 2020, only 20.6 percent of youngsters in the age range of 6 to 17 years were physically active for more than an hour each day. As per the self-reported data in 2018, around 54.2 percent of adults were able to achieve the physical activity recommendations of over 150 minutes of moderate physical exercise or over 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. The data from the Life Essential scores indicated that diet or nutrition had been one of the four zones with the lowest scores which ranged between 23.8 and 47.7 in various demographic sets.
The report stated that diet scores were 61.1 and 28.5 in kids who were in the age range of 2 to 5 years and 12 to 19 years respectively. Experts found being overweight was 36.8 percent prevalent in the US while obesity was 19.8 percent frequent in the country among adolescents and children who were in the age group of 2 to 19 years. The greatest prevalence of obesity and being overweight was found in Hispanic males and non-Hispanic Black young females. The frequency of being overweight or obese was 71.2 percent and 41.4 percent respectively in adults who were above 20 years. High blood pressure was quite frequent among 50.4 percent of men and 43 percent of women in the US who were above 20 years. It accounted for 122.4 million adults dealing with hypertension in the country from 2017 to 2020. The data obtained between 2017 and 2020 showed that around 29.3 million adults were dealing with diabetes in the United State. As per the report, peripheral artery ailment appeared to be more common among 16.2 percent of adults. Experts claimed that cardiovascular diseases including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, heart failure, and stroke in adults who were above 20 years of age were around 48.6 percent frequent between 2017 and 2020. The data on deaths that occurred in 2020 showed that heart disease and stroke led to more deaths as compared to respiratory diseases and cancer during that time. The global death rates for cardiovascular diseases witnessed an 18.71 percent boost from 2010 to 2020.
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