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Health Fact Sheets

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 40 percent of all deaths.

Heart disease and stroke share several common risk factors, including high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, and high blood cholesterol. Overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, and diabetes are additional risk factors for heart disease. 

Not just a disease of the old, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among Americans in middle age. Women account for more than half of all cardiovascular disease deaths each year.  Premature deaths due to cardiovascular disease are higher in black Americans than for the population as a whole.

The economic burden of cardiovascular disease has a profound impact on the U. S. health care system, and this burden continues to grow as the population ages. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cost of cardiovascular disease in the United States in 2004, heart disease is projected to cost $238.6 billion, including health care services, medications, and lost productivity.

While death rates from cardiovascular disease have declined in recent decades, death rates in the Southeast including Tennessee remain high. In 2003, the death rate for Tennesseans from diseases of the heart was 272.1 per 100,000 people. People living in the South are 29% more likely to have coronary artery disease than are people living in the West according to 1994 data.

Nationally, the age-adjusted* death rate per 100,000 persons for diseases of the heart was 245.8 in 2001. Age-adjusted data for 2001-2003 shows a death rate from heart disease as 279.6 for Tennessee and 306.9 for Shelby County. The Healthy People 2010 objective for all Americans is to reduce coronary heart disease deaths to no more than 166 per 100,000 people.

Death rates from stroke are highest in the southeastern States. In 1994, stroke was 51% more prevalent in the South than in the Northeast. Although stroke death rates have been decreasing, the decline among African Americans has not been as substantial as the decline in total population.  In 2003, deaths from stroke occurred at the rate of 66.4 per 100,000 persons in Tennessee, while the rates for whites and blacks were 68.8 and 59.4 per 100,000.

Prevention efforts and improvements in early detection, treatment, and care have resulted in several beneficial trends that may have contributed to the declines in heart disease and stroke in recent years. These trends include:

  • A decline in cigarette smoking among adults from 42% in 1965 to 25% in 1995.
  • Decreased mean levels of blood pressure in the U. S. population and an increase in the percentage of persons having hypertension that is treated and controlled.
  • Less consumption of foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol and decreased blood levels of cholesterol.
  • Improved medical care, including diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease and access to emergency and coronary-care facilities.

* Age-adjusted death rate: A death rate statistically modified to eliminate the effect of different age distributions in the different populations.