CVD as leading Cause of Death
In the United States, the leading cause of death is Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD). 42% of all deaths are caused by CVD and almost 1 million people die from CVD each year. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for all Americans aged 35 and older. The scariest part of all is that most deaths caused by CVD are unpredictable (heart attacks) and are not being detected by physicians. Although one may think that cancer would be the leading caues of death, one out of four Americans has CVD. Surprisingly, homicides accunt for the lowest causes of death. Although homicides are important to focus on, perhaps we need to turn our attention to preventing America's number one killer, cardiovascular disease.
http://www.healingwithnutrition.com/cdisease/cardiovascular/cardiovascular.html#A1
posted by Anonymous at
1:06 PM
1 Comments:
I think that what frequently happens is that groups use the data that best suits them to get their point across. Along the lines of Eva's comment, if your group was concerned about accidental deaths then you might use the stat on it being the leading cause of death in the 15 - 24 year old age groups, while if you're concerned about Alzheimer's you might say that the Alzheimer death rate among 75 - 84 year olds in 2002 was as high as the flu. The anti-smoking people probably say something like "lung cancer is the leading cause of preventable cancer" or something like that. All of these are true.
While these stats aren't false, it's how their used that you need to be aware of. It's easy to strenthen your case when you make the stat conditional: Your unlikely to get murdered unless your in the drug trade; the leading cause of death is accidents if you're between 15 and 24; etc. etc.
Here are some death stats from the Centers for Disease Control (a US government agency).
National Vital Statistics Report. This is a big pdf file that contains causes of death for Americans up to 2002. Indeed, heart disease is number one. 10 Leading Causes of Death, United States
2002, All Races, Both SexesFast Facts from the National Center for Health Statistics
By
John Topoleski, at 12:04 PM
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