1970 to 2022 Saw Decrease in Overall Heart Disease Mortality

TUESDAY, July 1, 2025 (HealthDay News) — From 1970 to 2022, there was a decrease in heart disease mortality overall, but an increase in mortality from other heart conditions, including heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, and arrhythmias, according to a study published online June 25 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Sara J. King, M.D., from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and colleagues utilized National Vital Statistics System Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research to examine long-term heart disease mortality trends for U.S. adults aged 25 years and older from 1970 to 2022.

The researchers found that from 1970 to 2022, overall age-adjusted heart disease mortality decreased by 66 percent (761 to 258 per 100,000). Ninety-one percent of all heart disease deaths were ischemic in 1970, decreasing to 53 percent in 2022. Age-adjusted mortality decreased by 89 and 81 percent for acute myocardial infarction and for all ischemic heart disease, respectively, from 1970 to 2022; in contrast, age-adjusted mortality for other heart disease subtypes increased by 81 percent, with the greatest increases seen for heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, and arrhythmias (146, 106, and 450 percent increase, respectively).

“This evolution over the past 50 years reflects incredible successes in the way heart attacks and other types of ischemic heart disease are managed,” King said in a statement. “However, the substantial increase in deaths from other types of heart conditions, including heart failure and arrhythmias, poses emerging challenges the medical community must address.”

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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