The number of people dying from heart disease has been falling, according to a new study reported in The Daily Mail.Heart disease is the world’s leading killer. Rates have dropped significantly in many parts of the US since the 1970s. But the rates of decline vary dramatically according to geographical area. Counties in the North are seeing the fastest declines, sometimes dropping by as much as 84%. But in the South, the picture isn’t as rosy. Some counties in the Deep South are only seeing heart disease rates decline by 9%.
While the High Plains hasn’t experienced the dramatic drops seen in the North, improvement here isn’t as slow-moving as in the South. The counties with the slowest declines were mostly located in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
The new study is the most comprehensive research to date to compare county-level patterns of geographic disparities in heart disease death rates.