(HealthDay News) — There has been a significant decline in the overall rate of acute myocardial infarction (AMI)-related deaths during the past 20 years across races and ethnic groups, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 4 to 6 in New Orleans.
Muchi Ditah Chobufo, MD, of West Virginia University, and colleagues analyzed information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (1999 to 2020) to calculate ethnic-specific age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR per 100,000) from death certificates with any mention of AMI. The authors sought to examine contemporary racial trends in AMI-related deaths in the United States.
The researchers identified a monotonous statistically significant decline in AMI-related mortality for all ethnic groups from 1999 to 2019, but there was an uptick in 2020. The AMI AAMR decreased from 87.4 per 100,000 in 1999 to 38.2 per 100,000 in 2020, with an average annual percentage change (AAPC) of −4.9 percent. For whites, the AAMR decreased from 86.7 in 1999 to 38.0 in 2020 compared with 104.1 to 46.0 in African Americans. The AAPC was −4.3 for whites and −4.7 for African Americans, which were both statistically significant.
“It’s good news,” Chobufo said in a statement. “Researchers often highlight the bad news, but people should know that even if we’re not there yet, we’re making progress in the right direction. I think the reasons are multifactorial, spanning all the way from health-promoting and prevention activities through treatment during and after a heart attack.”
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