Dramatic Decline Seen in Heart Disease, Stroke Hospitalizations within the Last Decade

First Posted: Aug 19, 2014 10:15 AM EDT
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A growing number of Americans are adopting healthier practices as more individualized treatments become available for certain health issues. 

This all supports recent findings from an American Heart Association (AHA) study, showing that within the last decade, the number of deaths and hospitalizations due to heart disease and stroke have significantly dropped.

For the study, published in the journal Circulation, researchers at the Yaloe School of Medicine, gathered data from 3 million Medicare patients from the period covering the years 1999 to 2011 and found that by the end of 2011, the rate of patients admitted to the hospital because of heart attack dropped by nearly 38 percent.

The researchers also saw a significant reduction in hospitalization rates associated with stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.  Angina-restricted blood flow and oxygen that can lead to heart attack --declined by 83 percent for hospitalizations, while angina declined by 31 percent, respectively. Risk of death from the conditions also reduced by 21 percent and 13 percent. Heart failure-related hospitalizations were also down by more than 30 percent and hospitalizations due to ischemic stroke also dropped by about 34 percent.

"Rather, we saw consistent improvements in the use of evidence-based treatments and medications and an increase in quality improvement initiatives using registries and other data to track performance and support improvement efforts - as well as a strong emphasis on heart-healthy lifestyles and behaviors," said lead study author Harlan Krumholz, a professor of Cardiology at the Yale School of Medicine, in a news release.

AHA spokesman Gregg Fonarow, a cardiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that from 1999 to 2011, added that the period covered in the study has also led to substantial efforts to boost quality care and outcomes for all heart attack, heart failure and stroke patients. 

"This analysis suggests these efforts contributed to a substantial number of lives saved and hospitalizations avoided," Fonarow concluded.

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