Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading of cause of death in Mississippi. We explored trends in CVD death rates among adults in Mississippi aged 35 years or older to assess changes from 2000 through 2018. METHODS: We extracted data from Mississippi Vital Statistics from 2000 through 2018. We used underlying cause-of-death codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) to identify CVD deaths; we included all cases with codes I00-I09, I11, I13, I20-I51, I60-I69, and I70. We calculated age-adjusted CVD death rates for the overall population by age, race, sex, and race-by-sex groups. RESULTS: Overall, the age-adjusted CVD death rate declined from 832.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2000 to 550.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2018, a relative decline of 33.9% and an average annual decline of -2.3% (95% CI, -2.7% to -1.8%). Age-adjusted CVD death rates declined from 2000 through 2018 for all groups, but the magnitude of decline varied by subgroup (men, -2.0%; women, -2.6%; non-Hispanic Black, -2.4%; non-Hispanic White, -2.2%; non-Hispanic Black women, -3.0%; non-Hispanic White women, -2.5%; non-Hispanic Black men -2.1%; non-Hispanic White men -2.0%). Age-specific analysis indicated a significant average annual increase of 1.7% (95% CI, 0.6%-2.9%) from 2011 through 2018 for the group aged 55 to 64 years. CONCLUSION: From 2000 through 2018, age-adjusted CVD death rates in Mississippi declined for all age/race/sex groups. However, the magnitude of decline varied by subgroup. Targeted interventions for CVD risk reduction are needed for adults aged 55 to 64 years in Mississippi, the only age group in which we observed a significant annual increase in CVD death rates.