Heart disease, stroke top killers worldwide

Heart disease is the biggest killer worldwide followed by stroke, according to a new report that showed 31 per cent of all global deaths were caused by cardiovascular diseases as of 2013.

One of every three deaths in US in 2013 were from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, according to American Heart Association (AHA)’s 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update.

“Statistics about cardiovascular disease and stroke, and particularly the metrics about death and the factors that contribute to cardiovascular disease are incredibly important,” said Mark Creager, president of American Heart Association.

Despite the progress in reducing the number of deaths from heart disease and stroke, the numbers are still too high, researchers said.

The data



showed globally that 31 per cent of all deaths were from cardiovascular disease, with 80 per cent occurring in low- and middle-income countries as of 2013, strokes accounted for 11.8 per cent of all deaths, and 16.9 million people worldwide had a first stroke in 2010.

In US, the data showed that cardiovascular diseases claimed 801,000 lives, heart disease killed more than 370,000 people and strokes killed nearly 129,000 people.

Cardiovascular disease is not only the top killer in the US, but worldwide, said David S Siscovick, chair of AHA’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention and senior vice president for research at the New York Academy of Medicine.

Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are global epidemics, he said.

The findings were published in journal Circulation.