Perspective:

The following are 10 points to remember about this update on heart disease and stroke statistics:

1. Rates of death attributable to cardiovascular disease (CVD) have declined, yet the burden of disease remains high. The 2008 overall rate of death attributable to CVD was 244.8 per 100,000, and from 1998 to 2008, the rate of death attributable to CVD declined 30.6%.

2. Each year, an estimated 785,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, and ~470,000 will have a recurrent attack.

3. Each year, ~795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke.

4. In 2008, one in nine death certificates (281,437 deaths) in the United States mentioned heart failure.

5. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005–2008 indicate that 33.5% of US adults ≥20 years of age have hypertension. This amounts to an estimated 76,400,000 US adults with hypertension.

6. Despite 4 decades of progress, in 2010, among Americans ≥18 years of age, 21.2% of men and 17.5% of women continued to be cigarette smokers.

7. In 2008, an estimated 18,300,000 Americans had diagnosed diabetes mellitus, representing 8.0% of the adult population.

8. The estimated prevalence of overweight and obesity in US adults (≥20 years of age) is 149,300,000, which represents 67.3% of this group in 2008.

9. The total number of inpatient CV operations and procedures increased 22%, from 6,133,000 in 1999 to 7,453,000 in 2009.

10. The Institute of Medicine has defined six specific domains for improving health care, including care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. Significant deficiencies remain for each of the specific domains for CV care.