Nearly Half of All U.S. Adults Have Cardiovascular Disease
New definition of high blood pressure helps explain why, American Heart Association says
A record 48 percent of U.S. adults — 121.5 million people — have some form of cardiovascular ailment, which includes coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and high blood pressure, according to a new report from the American Heart Association (AHA).
Cardiologist Ivor Benjamin, AHA volunteer president and director of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, attributed the increase to a new definition of high blood pressure, which says a reading of 130/80 indicates hypertension, compared with the previous benchmark of 140/90. The new report, based on 2016 data, is published in the AHA journal Circulation. Without taking high blood pressure into account, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease among U.S. adults was 9 percent overall, or about 24 million people, the study says.
By: Sarah Elizabeth Adler, AARP
