January 27, 2023 – The variety of deaths related to heart problems rose dramatically in 2020. This is the biggest increase in a single yr since 2015 and surpasses the previous record set in 2003, based on the Statistical Update 2023 from the American Heart Association.
During the primary yr of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest increases in deaths from heart problems (CVD) occurred amongst people of Asian, Black and Hispanic descent.
“We thought we had made progress as a country in reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease over the past few decades,” says Dr. Connie Tsao, chair of the editorial board of the Heart Association’s Statistical Update.
But since 2020, those trends have modified. Tsao, a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medication at Harvard Medical School, pointed to many health care professionals' firsthand experiences with the change.
“We've seen this sharp increase in age-adjusted cardiovascular disease deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” she says. “We in the health care community knew from the overcrowded hospitals and intensive care units that COVID was clearly taking its toll, especially on patients with cardiovascular risk factors.”
Each yr, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health release the most recent statistics on heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular risk aspects. The 2023 update includes more information on pandemic-related data.
Overall, the number of individuals dying from heart problems increased in the primary yr of the pandemic, from 876,613 in 2019 to 928,741 in 2020, surpassing the previous high of 910,000 in 2003.
The age-adjusted death rate also rose for the primary time in several years, says Tsao, by a “quite significant” 4.6 percent. The age-adjusted death rate takes under consideration the changes within the ageing population from yr to yr and explains the upper death rates amongst older people.
“Although our total number of deaths has slowly increased over the past decade, we have seen a decline in our age-adjusted rates every year — until 2020,” she says. “I think that's very indicative of what's going on in our country — and the world — given that people of all ages have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially before vaccines were available to slow the spread.”
The largest increases in deaths from heart problems were amongst Asians, blacks and Hispanics, who were hardest hit in the primary yr of the pandemic.
“People from communities of color were among those most affected, especially early on, often due to a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and obesity,” said Michelle Albert, MD, president of the Heart Association and professor of medication on the University of California, San Francisco. in a statement.
Albert, who can be director of the Center for the Study of Distress and Cardiovascular Disease at UCSF, conducts research in health equity and highlighted the disparities within the 2020 numbers.
“In addition, there are socioeconomic considerations as well as the ongoing impact of structural racism on multiple factors, including limiting access to quality health care,” she said.
In a Special commentaryThe Statistical Update Editorial Committee noted the necessity to collect data for other underrepresented communities, including LGBTQ people and other people living in rural or urban areas. The authors outlined several ways to higher understand how identity and social issues affect health, in addition to ways to scale back heart-related disparities.
“This year's group of authors made a great effort to collect information on specific social factors associated with health risks and outcomes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, urbanization and socioeconomic status,” says Tsao. “However, the data are lacking because these communities are severely underrepresented in clinical and epidemiological research.”
In the approaching years, the Heart Association’s Statistical Update will likely provide further insights into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing inequalities.
“We will certainly feel the effects of the pandemic for years to come,” says Tsao. “The realization that outcomes are unequal among vulnerable groups should prompt health care providers, researchers, administrators and policymakers to examine the reasons for this and make changes to reverse these trends.”