After decades of decline, deaths due to heart disease appear to
have leveled off among young men and may be trending upward in
young women, according to research released Monday. This is likely
due to poor health habits and the growing number of young Americans
who are overweight or obese, researchers say.
"Young adults should take stock of their lifestyles," Dr. Earl
S. Ford, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Atlanta, noted in a statement. "If you're smoking, you should quit.
If you're doing less than 30 minutes of physical activity per day,
it's time to find ways to be more active. If you need to lose
weight, you should burn more calories than you take in."
Ford and Dr. Simon Capewell, of the University of Liverpool, UK,
analyzed US vital statistics data between 1980 and 2002 for people
aged 35 and older.
At first glance, the results were good: The death rate from
heart disease fell by 52 percent in men and 49 percent in women.
Among men, the death rate from heart disease declined, on average,
by 2.9 percent per year during the 1980s, 2.6 percent per year
during the 1990s, and 4.4 percent per year from 2000 to 2002. Among
women, the death rate fell in those decades by 2.6 percent, 2.4
percent, and 4.4 percent, respectively.
However, the numbers tell a different story when broken down by
age category. Among men aged 35 to 54, the average annual rate of
death from heart disease fell by 6.2 percent in the 1980s, by 2.3
percent in the 1990s, and leveled off with an annual decline of
just 0.5 percent between 2000 and 2002.
Among women aged 35 to 54, the average annual rate of death from
heart disease fell by 5.4 percent in the 1980s and by 1.2 percent
in the 1990s -- and then increased by 1.5 percent between 2000 and
2002.
This increase was not significant from a statistical standpoint,
meaning it could have occurred by chance. However, in even younger
women -- those aged 35 to 44 -- the rate of death from heart
disease has been increasing by an average of 1.3 percent annually
between 1997 and 2002, which is statistically significant.
Ford encourages people to adopt heart-healthy habits early in
life, noting that harmful changes in the arteries that lead to
heart disease occur at an early age. "Therefore, it's especially
important that children learn to develop appropriate behaviors that
minimize their risk for heart disease later in life," he said,
adding that heart health is a "life-long commitment."
The research is published in the November 27 issue of the
Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Philip
Greenland, who co-wrote a companion editorial said this research
"should be regarded as a wake-up call for everyone interested in
heart disease and heart health."
"The take-home message is that heart disease has not gone away,
continues to be a problem, and could become a greater problem if
Americans fail to pay attention to known warning signs like
overweight and obesity, and lack of exercise," added Greenland, who
is at Northwestern University, Chicago.
(Agencies via China Daily November 20, 2007)