Arrhythmia, angina, congenital, myocarditis, rheumatic, coronary, and atherosclerosis are all major forms of heart disease. While it can arise from a number of problems, such as infections and birth defects, the statistics about heart disease prove what a serious threat it is worldwide.
Some statistics about heart disease are:
- 25% of Americans have some sort of heart disease.
- An American dies every 35 seconds from heart disease.
- Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) claims a life every 33 seconds.
- A heart attack occurs every 20 seconds in the USA.
- Heart attacks take 250,000 American lives yearly.
- There are 6 million hospitalizations per annum caused by cardiovascular disease.
- Heart disease affects 11.5% of non-institutionalized persons
- The average stay for a heart disease patient is 4.6 days.
- 26.2 million People per year visit their doctor for cardiovascular problems.
- CVD has been ranked the number one killer in the USA from 1900. 1918 is the only year on record where it has not been so.
- Studies show that education level is related to who the disease strikes. As such, people on the low end of that spectrum are most likely to be affected.
- Men are at risk from heart attacks earlier in life than women.
- Men make up 52.2% of the heart disease cases, while women constitute the other 47.8%.
- Mental state is a factor and clinically depressed men are a high risk category.
- Caucasians amount for 88.2% of the cases of heart disease.
- African American women are the highest risk group for CVD.
- 40% of the American African American population has heart disease.
- 9.5% of American heart disease cases are African American.
- CVD reduces the life expectancy of those affected by as much as 11 years.
- Prompt treatment for heart disease sees survival rates of 52% for men and 48% for women.
- 64% of the women who died from heart disease had no prior symptoms.
- Menopause increases heart disease risk.
- Heart disease is the number one killer of women. It counts for more female deaths than accidents, cancers and other diseases like AIDS, totaled together.
- As women have a lower survival rate from heart disease, it has killed more women than men since 1984.
- Women display less obvious symptoms of heart disease than men.
- Heart disease impacts the national purse to the tune of $260 billion per annum.
- CVD is most prevalent in men over 85 years old. 6,430 in every 100,000 males die per annum. For women the figure is 5,720 per 100,000.
- The top five countries with the highest heart disease deaths are Russia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Those five with the lowest are Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Canada.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 29% of all global deaths are from cardiovascular disease.
- 80% of all global CVD cases happen in low and middle income countries.
- Heart disease can account for 30% or more of household spending.
