Without better prevention and early detection, the number of women living with cardiovascular disease will increase substantially in the coming decades, the American Heart Association said Wednesday.
Using historical trends from two national health surveys and census estimates of population growth, the heart association forecast that the percentage of women with at least one type of cardiovascular disease will climb by more than a third, from 10.7% in 2020 to 14.4% in 2050.
Cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of death for women in the U.S.
The most common form is coronary heart disease, which occurs when fatty deposits called plaque build up in the heart’s arteries, preventing them from delivering oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. Other types included in the new report are heart failure, when the heart struggles to fill with and pump blood; atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heart rhythm; and stroke.
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