Heart Disease: Scope and Impact

• Heart disease is the number one cause of death for both men and women in the United States, claiming approximately 1 million lives annually.
• Every 33 seconds someone in the United States dies from cardiovascular disease which is roughly the equivalent of a September 11^th-like tragedy repeating itself every 24 hours, 365 days a year.
• More die of heart disease than of AIDS and all cancers combined.
• By 2020, heart disease will be the leading cause of death throughout the world.
• This year more than 920,000 Americans will have a heart attack; nearly half of them will occur without prior symptoms or warning signs.
• 250,000 Americans die annually of Sudden Cardiac Death –680 every day of the year.
• One-half of the victims of Sudden Cardiac Death are under the age of 65.
• An estimated 80 million Americans have one or more types of heart disease.
• About 8.9 million Americans have chest pain (angina) caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscle which occurs when the coronary arteries become blocked with a build-up of plaque.
• Currently about 7.9 million Americans are alive who have had a heart attack.
• In 2008, the total cost of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease, hypertensive disease, heart failure and stroke) in the U.S. was estimated at $448.5 billion.  (This includes direct costs such as costs of doctors, hospital services, medications, etc., and indirect costs such as lost productivity.)  In comparison, the estimated economic cost of cancer in 2007 was $219 billion.

Women & Heart Disease

• Women account for just over half of the total heart disease deaths in the United States each year, although many women continue to think of heart disease as a man’s disease.
• Worldwide, 8.6 million women die from heart disease each year, accounting for a third of all deaths in women.
• 42% of women who have heart attacks die within 1 year, compared to 24% of men.
• Under age 50, women’s heart attacks are twice as likely as men’s to be fatal.
• 8 million women in the US are currently living with heart disease; 35,000 are under age 65. Four million suffer from angina.
• 435,000 American women have heart attacks annually; 83,000 are under age 65; 35,000 are under 55.
• 267,000 women die each year from heart attacks – six times more than the number of women who die from breast cancer.

Source The Heart Foundation