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By Mike Cooper
ATLANTA — February 15, 2001 (Reuters)
Heart disease remains the leading cause
of death in the United States despite better health
care and more public awareness of the dangers of smoking,
inactivity and poor diet, government health officials
said on Thursday.
Death rates from coronary heart disease
began to decline during the 1960s, but the decline has
slowed since 1990, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) said. "We're still a sedentary
society. We still eat foods that are high in calories
and high in fat. We still smoke a lot. A lot of Americans
have not gotten their high blood pressure under control,"
said Janice Williams of the CDC's National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
"Heart disease is the leading killer
of American men and women," she said. Almost 460,000
people died of coronary heart disease in 1998, the latest
year for which statistics were available, accounting
for one out of every five deaths in the United States.
Forty-four percent of those deaths were due to heart
attacks, researchers said.
Cardiovascular disease and cancer, the
nation's second most common cause of death, account
for almost two-thirds of all U.S. deaths, the CDC said.
"Although treatment has improved and the American
public is knowledgeable about risk factors for coronary
heart disease, such as smoking, poor diet and being
inactive, heart disease death rates increased in 1998,"
the CDC said.
The Atlanta-based agency added that there
was "minimal, if any, improvement" during
the 1990s in behaviors that have been linked to heart
ailments. Among adults aged 35 and older, the 1998 death
rate from heart disease was higher among men than women.
Deaths from coronary heart disease were
highest among white men, with a rate of 440 per 100,000,
and second highest in black men, who had a rate of 421.6
per 100,000. Black women suffered from coronary heart
disease at a rate of 301.9 per 100,000, while the rate
for white women was 263.8 per 100,000, the CDC said.
New York had the highest death rate
from coronary heart disease in the United States,
while New Mexico had the lowest, the CDC said. The rate
of deaths from heart attacks was highest in Arkansas,
while also lowest in New Mexico.
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