Heart Attack statistics

About how acute is the Heart Attack problem we can see analyzing actual stats on this disease. Below is a list of statistics from United States and worldwide which speak about the necessity to take action.

• 1.5 million Heart attacks occur in the United States each year with 500,000 deaths.
• More than 233,000 women die annually from cardiovascular disease.
• A heart attack occurs about every 20 seconds with a heart attack death about every minute.
• Almost 14 million Americans have a history of heart attack or angina.
• About 50% of deaths occur within one hour of the heart attack --outside a hospital.
• There is a 6% to 9% early mortality from heart attack for those who survive long enough to reach the hospital.
• Studies show the most common time for a heart attack to occur is Monday morning. Saturday morning ranks second. Another common time is during the early morning hours, when blood platelets are stickier.
• Chewing an uncoated aspirin right away, at the first sign of chest discomfort or distress, can reduce the amount of damage to the heart muscle during a heart attack.
• Costs related to heart attack exceed 60 billion dollars per year.
• Heart attack is a leading killer of both men and women in the United States. Every 20 seconds one American suffers a Heart attack
• More than 1000000 (1 million) Americans support a heart attack each year
• More than 2 hours takes to a patient in most of cases to ask for medical attention. Sometimes, this is too long and irreversible heart muscle damages appear in myocardium
• A big part of those suffering Heart Attacks survive and can continue their activities.

Coronary Heart Disease Statistics for 2004

Final 2004 statistics for the United States show that coronary heart disease (CHD) is the single leading cause of death in America. As we know, CHD causes heart attack and angina. Below are the statistics retrieved from the NHANES[1]

• Mortality - 451,326 deaths in the United States in 2004 (one of every five deaths).
• Prevalence - 16,000,000 victims of angina (chest pain due to coronary heart disease), heart attack and other forms of coronary heart disease are still living (8,700,000 males and 7,300,000 females)."
• Incidence - 1,200,000 new and recurrent coronary attacks per year.
• About 38 percent of people who experience a coronary attack in a given year die from it. [2]
• From 1994 to 2004 the death rate from coronary heart disease declined 33 percent, but the actual number of deaths declined only 18 percent.
• Estimates are that 9,100,000 people in the United States suffer from angina.
• An estimated 500,000 new cases of stable angina occur each year [3].
• The estimated age-adjusted prevalence of angina in women age 20 and older was 3.9 percent for non-Hispanic white women, 4.3 percent for non-Hispanic black women and 3.3 percent for Mexican-American women. Rates for men in these three groups were 4.8, 3.4 and 2.3 percent, respectively. [1]
• Among adults in the United States age 20 and older, the estimated age-adjusted prevalence of coronary heart disease for non-Hispanic whites is 9.4 percent for men and 6.0 percent for women; for non-Hispanic blacks, 7.1 percent for men and 7.8 percent for women; and for Mexican-Americans, 5.6 percent for men and 5.3 percent for women. [1]
• The estimated number of persons with angina in United States is 8.9 million
• Each year in United States are registered 400 000 new cases of angina
• If the heart attack is not treated in the first hour, the percentage of deaths is 50%
• 60 billion dollars are spent yearly to treat and prevent heart attacks in USA

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REFERENCES:
[1] Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999-2004), National Center for Health Statistics and NHLBI.
[2] (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities [ARIC] Study and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)
[3] (Framingham Heart Study, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

Women and Heart Attack

• Heart attacks kills 1 of 4 women, while breast cancer 1 of 16. Heart Attack is a most often cause of death in women than breast cancer.
• The National Registry of Myocardial Infarctions [1] reports that women have a worse outcome than men after having a heart attack. Data showed that women under the age of 50 had twice the mortality of men after having a heart attack. Variances likely reflect increased severity of the disease in younger women.
• Sudden death is more common among women with heart attack.
• Deaths from cardiovascular diseases in women exceed the total number of deaths caused by the next 16 causes.
• 60% of women erroneously listed cancer as the leading cause of death among women. Deaths from all cancers in the USA are half as common as deaths from cardiovascular disease.
• Only 31% of women know that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the USA.
• On the average, women take 2-4 hours longer than men to respond to symptoms of heart attack, limiting the beneficial use of some newer treatments like clot busters that work best within the first hour after onset of pain or discomfort.
• From 1983 to 1993, heart attack deaths fell about 30% overall but have not fallen nearly as much for women.

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REFERENCES:
[1] New England Journal Med., July, 22 1999

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