Obesity-related cardiovascular mortality increased from 1999 to 2020 in the United States, according to a study published online Sept. 6 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, M.D., Ph.D., from Queen Mary University in London, and colleagues examined trends and disparities in obesity-related cardiovascular mortality in the U.S. population between 1999 and 2020 using the Multiple Causes of Death database. Adults with primary cardiovascular death and obesity recorded as a contributing cause of death were identified.
The researchers found a threefold increase in age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) from 1999 to 2020 in an analysis of 281,135 obesity-related cardiovascular deaths, from 2.2 to 6.6 per 100,000 population. The highest AAMRs were seen for Black individuals, whereas the greatest temporal increase in AAMRs was seen for American Indian and Alaska Native individuals (+415 percent). The most common primary cause of death was ischemic heart disease, followed by hypertensive disease, which was most common among Black individuals (31 percent). Among Black individuals, women had higher AAMRs than men, while men had a greater proportion of obesity-related cardiovascular mortality cases and higher AAMRs across all other racial groups. Greater AAMRs were seen in urban versus rural settings for Black individuals, whereas the opposite was true for other races.
“There is need for dedicated health strategies aimed at individual communities to better understand and tackle the social determinants of obesity and to design interventions that may alleviate the population burden of both obesity and cardiovascular disease,” the authors write.
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