The good news is between 1999 and 2009, the rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease fell 32.7 percent. Unfortunately, cardiovascular disease still accounted for nearly one in three deaths in the U.S., and the sobering statistics continue.  According to the American Heart Association’s “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update 2013,” published Dec. 12 in Circulation, cardiovascular health may only improve by six percent if current trends remain.

The report notes that the biggest barriers to improvement are projected increases in obesity and diabetes, and only modest improvements in diet and physical activity. However, smoking, high cholesterol and high blood pressure rates are projected to decline.

Additional statistics include:

• More adults age 20 and over are obese (34.6 percent) than normal or underweight (31.8 percent); 68.2 percent are overweight or obese.
• Among children ages 2-19, 31.8 percent are overweight or obese.
• Thirty-two percent of adults report no aerobic activity; 17.7 percent of girls and 10 percent of boys, grades 9-12, report fewer than an hour of aerobic activity in the past week.
• 13.8 percent of adults have total cholesterol of 240 mg/dL or higher.
•  Thirty-three percent of adults have high blood pressure; African-Americans have among the highest prevalence of high blood pressure (44 percent) worldwide.
•  8.3 percent of adults have diagnosed diabetes, and 8.2 percent have undiagnosed diabetes; 38.2 percent have prediabetes.

Working to improving these statistics is the root of the College’s mission: to transform cardiovascular disease and improve heart health. The College has partnered with national initiatives like the Million Hearts Campaign, which is jointly managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and has a goal of preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes the by the year 2017.

In addition, the ACC’s CardioSmart initiative plays an important role in educating consumers about how to partner more effectively with their provider to improve heart health. CardioSmart has a number of tools available to help curb these statistics, including a smoking cessation text message program, a text message program to prevent cardiovascular disease, mobile Apps to help patients remember to take their medications, and much more.

However it is also important to keep in mind that these problems go well beyond the U.S., and the College has been working with other health organizations to put non communicable diseases (NCDs) as a top priority. Our recent efforts have paid off and have led to the adoption of targets to stem preventable death from cardiovascular disease (read more in a previous blog post here).

By working together, and with more education, awareness, preventative measures and efforts, we are one step closer to changing the statistics and improving the care of our patients.