US Trends in Obesity-Related Ischemic Heart Disease Mortality: Daily Dose

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Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

Last week, we reported on research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2024 that was designed to assess the trends in obesity-related ischemic heart disease (IHD) mortality in the US from 1999 to 2020.

The study

Researchers evaluated data for 226 267 deaths related to IHD and obesity from 1999 to 2020 from the CDC WONDER database for people of all ages. The team reviewed both crude mortality rates and age-adjusted death rates per 100 000 individuals.

The findings

Investigators reported:

• A 5.03 (95% CI 4.5-5.4) annual percentage increase in the overall rate of obesity-related heart disease deaths.

• An increase of 243% in age-adjusted death rate among men, from 2.1 deaths per 100 000 people in 1999 to 7.2 per 100 000 in 2020.

• An increase of 165% in age-adjusted mortality among men aged 55 to 64 years, from 5.5 deaths per 100 000 people in 1999 to 14.6 deaths per 100 000 people in 2020.

• An increase of 131% in the age adjusted mortality rate among women, from 1.6 deaths per 100 000 people in 1999 to 3.7 per 100 000 in 2020.

The age-adjusted death rate was highest among Black adults at 3.93 deaths per 100 000 people, according to the results.

When study authors examined the rise in deaths from obesity-related IHD across the geographic US, they found the highest rates among residents of the Midwest where the age adjusted rate was 3.3 deaths per 100 000 people. The lowest rate, 2.8 deaths per 100 000 people, was observed in the Northeastern states.

Authors' comment

“Our findings underscore the need to explore the underlying causes of these disparities, such as differences in health care access, socioeconomic factors and regional health policies. Understanding these factors is the first step in identifying and designing more effective public health interventions.”

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