Cardiovascular disease accounts for 23.4 percent of deaths in the U.S., and the age-adjusted death rates increased by 0.9 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to a report released Dec. 8 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jiaquan Xu, with the National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics, and his team used data from the National Vital Statistics System, and compared 2015 and 2014 data for life expectancy estimates, age-adjusted death rates by race, ethnicity and sex, the 10 leading causes of death and 10 leading causes of infant death.

Notably, in 2015 the 10 leading causes of death – cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide – remained the same as in 2014, and accounted for 74.2 percent of all deaths in the U.S in 2015. Cardiovascular disease accounted for 23.4 percent of deaths in the U.S.

Further, from 2014 to 2015, age-adjusted death rates increased for eight of 10 leading causes of death: increased 0.9 percent for cardiovascular disease, 2.7 percent for chronic lower respiratory diseases, 6.7 percent for unintentional injuries, 3.0 percent for stroke, 15.7 percent for Alzheimer’s disease, 1.9 percent for diabetes, 1.5 percent for kidney disease and 2.3 percent for suicide. The rate decreased by 1.7 percent for cancer, and the rate for influenza and pneumonia did not significantly change.

The authors add that “the [age-adjusted death] rate for the total population rose significantly for the first time since 1999,” as it increased 1.2 percent from 2014 to 2015. In addition, life expectancy at birth decreased 0.1 year.

“In the last 50 years, deaths from heart disease have dropped dramatically,” said Richard A. Chazal, MD, FACC, president of the ACC. “As the American population ages, upticks such as this should only drive us to seek opportunities to improve both the quality of care and access to it for the wellbeing of our patients.”

Keywords: Alzheimer Disease, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S., Continental Population Groups, Death, Diabetes Mellitus, Heart Diseases, Infant, Influenza, Human, Kidney Diseases, Life Expectancy, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S., Neoplasms, Pneumonia, Rosa, Stroke, Suicide, Vital Statistics

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