The American Heart Association wants to help everyone live longer, healthier lives so they can enjoy all of life’s precious moments. And we know that starts with taking care of your health. American Heart Month, a federally designated event, is a great way to remind Americans to focus on their hearts and encourage them to get their families, friends and communities involved. Together, we can build a culture of health where making the healthy choice is the easy choice. Why? Because Life is Why.
Did you know? The first American Heart Month, which took place in February 1964, was proclaimed by President Lyndon B. Johnson via Proclamation 3566 on December 30, 1963.
The Congress, by joint resolution on that date, has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating February as American Heart Month.
At that time, more than half the deaths in the U.S. were caused by cardiovascular disease.
While American Heart Month is a federally designated month in the U.S., it’s important to realize that cardiovascular disease knows no borders. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the leading global cause of death with more than 17.3 million deaths each year. That number is expected to rise to more than 23.6 million by 2030.
American Heart Month Statistics:
• 220.8 per 100,000: The overall rate of death attributable to CVD, based on 2014 data.
• On average, someone died of CVD every 40 seconds. That is about 2,200 deaths of CVD each day.
• On average, someone in the US has a stroke every 40 seconds. This is about 795,000 new or recurrent stroke each year. On average, someone died of a stroke every 4 minutes
• Stroke accounted for ≈1 of every 20 deaths in the United States.
• More than 65% of US adults have 2, 3, or 4 criteria at ideal cardiovascular health, with ≈20% adults within each of these categories. At any age, females tend to have more metrics at ideal levels than do males. Blacks and Hispanics tend to have fewer metrics at ideal levels than whites or other races.
• 85.7 million, or 34.0% of US adults are estimated to have hypertension, based on 2011-2014 data.
• 28.5 million, or 11.9% of US adults are estimated to have total serum cholesterol levels ≥240 mg/ dL, based on 2011-2014 data.
• 23.4 million, or 9.1% of US adults are estimated to have diagnosed diabetes, based on 2011-2014 data.
• 1 in 6 males and 1 in 7 females in the United States are current smokers, based on 2015 data.
• On average, 1 in 3 adults, or 30.4% Do not engage in leisure time physical activity. Hispanic and Non-Hispanic black adults were more likely to be inactive.