In 2015, heart disease was identified as the leading cause of death among people in the United States. The scenario is no different in 2016 as well.
This time again, a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that heart disease is the number one killer among Americans, followed by cancer. However, there is a bright side of the story as well.
The American death and infant mortality rates have hit an all-time low wherein the latter has decreased by almost 2.3 percent and the adult mortality rate has reduced by 1 percent. The report further states that the average life expectancy for non-Hispanic black men, black men and Hispanics have increased, according to CNN. However, the bad news is that the life expectancy for non-Hispanic white women has decreased.
Apart from heart disease and cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases such as emphysema remains the third highest killer in the US, followed by car accident, drug overdose, stroke, Alzheimer's and diabetes. Flu, pneumonia, suicide, kidney disease, hypertension, septicemia, chronic liver disease and Parkinson's disease are other diseases and conditions on the list of major killers.
The rankings of these conditions have changed only a little in the past few years. For example, Alzheimer's disease surpassed diabetes in 2013 and since then, it has been ahead of it. The trend has been the same for rankings for infant deaths as well. In fact, the leading cause of deaths in 2014 remained the same as that of 2013.
"We all have to die of something at some point. When you're looking at these categories you have to account for the fact that there are competing risks, but you can't avoid death," Bob Anderson, chief of the CDC's Mortality Statistics Branch, told CBS News.
Anderson further said that the aim of the health officials is to create a society where everyone can live as long as they can and remain healthy. According to Anderson, collating such data help researchers device specific prevention programs.
The CDC report further claims that the life expectancy at birth, which is 78.8 years, has remained unchanged since 2012.
The following video explores why heart disease disproportionately affects African-Americans?