Trends and disparities in coronary heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases in the United States - Findings of the National Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

A workshop was held September 27 through 29, 1999: to address issues relati ng to national trends in mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseas es; the apparent slowing of declines in mortality from cardiovascular disea ses; levels and trends in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases; dispari ties in cardiovascular diseases by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, an d geography; trends in cardiovascular disease preventive and treatment serv ices; and strategies for efforts to reduce cardiovascular diseases overall and to reduce disparities among subpopulations. The conference concluded th at coronary heart disease mortality is still declining in the United States as a whole, although perhaps at a slower rate than in the 1980s; that stro ke mortality rates have declined little, if at all, since 1990; and that th ere are striking differences in cardiovascular death rates by race/ethnicit y, socioeconomic status, and geography. Trends in risk factors are consiste nt with a slowing of the decline in mortality; there has been little recent progress in risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity, and hyperte nsion control. There are increasing levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes, with major differences among subpopulations. There is considerable activity in population-wide prevention, primary prevention for higher risk people, and secondary prevention, but wide disparities exist among groups on the ba sis of socioeconomic status and geography, pointing to major gaps in effort s to use available, proven approaches to control cardiovascular diseases. R ecommendations for strategies to attain the year 2010 health objectives wer e made.