Heart-related deaths rose sharply in first year of COVID pandemic, report shows

Key Facts

Health Updated on: January 25, 2023 / 8:49 PM / CBS News Raising women's heart health awareness Raising awareness of women's heart health and sudden cardiac arrest 08:12 The annual pace of Americans dying from cardiovascular-related causes accelerated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to the worst it has been since 2015, according to final figures gathered this month by the American Heart Association.
We also know that many people who had new or existing heart disease and stroke symptoms were reluctant to seek medical care," Dr. Michelle Albert, the association's vice president, said in a news release announcing the annual publication compiled by the association and the National Institutes of Health.
"Prior to 2020, death rates from heart disease had been declining among adults for decades, which has been recognized by the CDC as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the last century," the CDC's Rebecca Woodruff had said in a statement.
Cardiovascular deaths also saw the biggest increases in 2020 among Asian, Black, and Hispanic people, the publication reported, appearing to mirror some of the hardest-hit communities in the early wave of the pandemic.