Heart Attacks Make Way for New Cardiovascular Diseases: American Heart Association

Risk factors that adversely impact the heart like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and physical inactivity have been on the rise in the country.

A registered nurse cares for a patient on a stretcher in a hallway of the overloaded Emergency Room at Providence St. Mary Medical Center amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Apple Valley, Calif., on Jan. 5, 2021. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Deaths from heart attacks have declined substantially over the past five decades in the United States while deaths from other types of heart diseases have seen a significant increase, according to a June 25 peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The age‐adjusted mortality rate for acute myocardial infarction (AMI)—a medical term for heart attack—declined by 89 percent between 1970 and 2022.