Following a five-year upward trend likely impacted by the COVID pandemic, the number of heart disease and stroke deaths has declined, yet, heart disease and stroke still kill more people in the U.S. each year than any other cause, according to data reported in the 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data From the American Heart Association. Together, heart disease (22% of U.S. deaths)—the leading cause of death for more than a century—and stroke (5.3% of U.S. deaths)—now replacing COVID as the 4th leading cause of death—accounted for more than a quarter of all deaths in the U.S. in 2023, the latest year for which data is available. The annual update is published in Circulation.
This article was originally published on MedicalXpress.com
