MIAMI.- Las deaths by heart diseases related to the consumption of alcohol or drugs have increased steadily in USAdoubling in the last 20 years, found new research by a team of scientists from Loma Linda University Healthin California.
Las diseases heart diseases are the main cause of deaths between men and women in USA. According to the American Heart Association (AHA)cardiovascular diseases (CVD) accounted for 874,613 deaths in the country in 2019.
Increase of 4% per year
The research published in an article in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that heart disease deaths in which substance use was cited as a contributor increased on average 4% per year between 1999 and 2019, even though overall heart disease deaths decreased during the same period.
According to the study, overall deaths increased from 9.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019. Between 1999 and 2019, there were a total of 51,998,560 deaths and 29,455,193 related deaths cardiovascular diseases in people 25 years old.
The findings also showed that the mortality rate has accelerated in recent years, with an increase of more than 6% between 2012 and 2019.
They also found that alcohol was most frequently involved and played a role in 65% of deaths from heart disease.
Other substances such as opioids with 13.7%, cocaine with 9.8%, stimulants with 6.5%, sedatives with 4.1% and cannabis with 0.5% were also involved in fatal heart diseases, results show.
Abramow’s group explained that although alcohol and opioids were the substances most associated with cardiovascular deaths during the study, the increases in cardiovascular deaths related to stimulants, of which amphetamines predominated, were also particularly prominent.
Increase by age, ethnicity and sex
On the other hand, the largest increase in deaths occurred among people between 25 and 39 years old with 5.3%, followed by adults between 55 and 69 years old with 4.9%.
It was observed, in turn, that cardiovascular deaths caused by substance use were more prominent among women with an increase of 4.8%, while in American Indians or Alaska Natives it was 5.4% and among people living in rural areas 5%.
However, although men had higher rates of substance use-related deaths, women showed a greater increase during the study period, the report details.
How affects?
Some studies have shown an association between moderate alcohol consumption and a lower risk of dying from heart diseases such as heart failure, high blood pressure or myocardial infarction.
While Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests that excessive alcohol consumption is associated with high blood pressure, heart failure, stroke and obesity.
According to the AHA, 50 million Americans have high blood pressure, 12.6 million have ischemic heart disease, and 4.6 million have experienced a stroke.
Shows the risk of substances
The study’s lead author, Dr. Dmitry Abramov, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Loma Linda University Health, said in a news release that the study results were generally consistent with what is seen in the clinic while treating to patients with cardiovascular diseases.
“We were surprised to see significant increases among people ages 25 to 39, compared to other age groups and among people from certain racial and ethnic groups, including white adults and American Indian/Alaska Native adults,” he added.
They mentioned that identifying high-risk groups is crucial to prioritize preventive measures aimed at reducing substance use and cardiovascular disease-related mortality in these populations.
Finally, they said that the results of this research highlight the current risk of common substances, including alcohol and opioids, and also demonstrate the need to address amphetamines (a drug with highly addictive stimulant properties) as a substance whose contribution to Deaths from cardiovascular diseases are growing more rapidly.
To conduct the study, researchers used data from publicly available death certificates provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They analyzed more than 636,000 deaths from heart disease associated with substance use that occurred between 1999 and 2019.
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Source: With information from the American Heart Association (AHA and Health Day
