Celebrate Heart Month
Reduce your risk for heart disease and stroke
In early January 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new mortality data showing that since 1999, the coronary
heart disease and stroke age-adjusted death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively.
Although heart disease death rates are declining, it is still the number one cause of death in the United States. More importantly, controlling risk factors remains a challenge for many people.
To combat heart disease and educate the public about how to decrease the risk for heart disease and stroke, Congress and the American Heart Association have proclaimed February to be American Heart Month. All month long, Penn partners with the American Heart Association to raise awareness about heart disease.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) include heart
disease, stroke, high
blood pressure, heart
failure and several other conditions, including arrhythmias, atrial
fibrillation, cardiomyopathy and peripheral
arterial disease.
Although the age-adjusted CVD death rate has decreased, the prevalence of many related risk factors is holding steady or increasing:
Obesity |
The percentage of overweight individuals, both adults and children, has been rising for several decades:
- 66 percent of adults are overweight
- 31.4 percent of adults are obese
- 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 12 to 19 are overweight
- 7.5 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight
- 14 percent of children ages 2 through 5 are overweight
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Smoking |
Smoking, which raises the risk of coronary heart disease death two to three times, remains highly prevalent:
- More than 46 million U.S. adults are daily smokers
- About 4,000 people ages 12 to 17 begin smoking every day
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Diabetes |
It is projected that the prevalence of diabetes, defined as a fasting blood glucose level of 126 milligrams per deciliter or more, will more than double from 2005 to 2050.*
- About one third of the more than 15.1 million people with diabetes don’t know they have it
- About 59.7 million people have prediabetes (a fasting blood glucose level between 100 and 125 milligrams per deciliter), which greatly increases the risk of diabetes
*Based on 1984–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Studies |
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For more information about how you can reduce
your risk for heart disease and stroke, visit
the American
Heart Association web site or Penn
Cardiac Care.
Source: American Heart Association, Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics – 2008 Update, http://www.americanheart.org/statistics
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