Atlanta, GA–Despite being largely preventable, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and other related conditions caused 2.2 million hospitalizations in 2016, resulting in $32.7 billion in costs and 415,000 deaths, according to the latest CDC’s Vital Signs report.
Many of these events were in adults ages 35-64, with over 775,000 hospitalizations and 75,000 deaths occurring within this group in 2016.
If every state reduced these life-changing events by six percent every year, one million cardiac events could be prevented by 2022.
The staggering number of cardiovascular deaths and hospitalizations arise from opportunities missed every day in finding and treating the common, controllable causes of cardiovascular diseases. This report shows that:
- 9 million American adults are not yet taking aspirin as recommended.
- 40 million adults with high blood pressure are not yet under safe control.
- 39 million adults can benefit from managing their cholesterol.
- 54 million adults are smokers – most of whom want to quit.
- 71 million adults are not physically active.
