Million hearts: strategies to reduce the prevalence of leading cardiovascular disease risk factors--United States, 2011

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes one in three (approximately 800,000) deaths reported each year in the United States. Annual direct and overall costs resulting from CVD are estimated at $273 billion and $444 billion, respectively. Strategies that address leading CVD risk factors, such as hypertension, high cholesterol levels, and smoking, can greatly reduce the burden of CVD. To estimate the U.S. prevalence of these three risk factors, CDC analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on uncontrolled hypertension, uncontrolled high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and current smoking. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which found that 49.7% of U.S. adults aged ≥20 years (an estimated 107.3 million persons) have at least one of the three risk factors. To reduce the prevalence of CVD risk factors among persons in the United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with nonprofit and private organizations, is launching Million Hearts, a multifaceted combination of evidence-based interventions and strategies aimed at preventing 1 million heart attacks and strokes over the next 5 years.