The study showed that the number of cardiovascular disease deaths worldwide has risen sharply, climbing to 19.2 million in 2023 from 13.1 million in 1990.
The heart-related mortality was driven by population growth, ageing, and exposure to a broad range of risks, including increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, as revealed by the report based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study, and published today in JACC.
Ischemic heart disease affected an estimated 240 million people in 2023, while lower extremity peripheral arterial disease impacted 122 million; stroke remained a leading cause of death and disability across all regions.
Men had higher cardiovascular mortality rates than women in most regions, and risk increased steeply after age 50.
High body mass index and high fasting plasma glucose were the fastest-growing metabolic contributors between 2018 and 2023, mirroring global trends in obesity and diabetes.
"The finding that CVD burden is substantially greater outside of the most developed settings, even after accounting for differences in population age, remains among the most important messages of this analysis," said Gregory A. Roth, Professor in the Division of Cardiology, University of Washington.
"Our analysis shows wide geographic differences in CVD burden that can't be explained by income level alone. Given this kind of variation, our findings offer the opportunity to tailor local health policies to target the most relevant risks for specific populations," she added.
Researchers estimated the burden due to 376 diseases, including CVD, from 1990 to 2023 in 204 countries using all available data and statistical models.
CVD also remained the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and deaths estimated in the GBD globally. There were 437 million CVD DALYs in 2023, with a 16-fold difference between the countries with the lowest and highest CVD DALY rates.
This is a 1.4-fold increase from the 320 million CVD DALYs in 1990.
Importantly, 79.6 per cent of all CVD DALYs globally in 2023 were attributable to modifiable risk factors, which have increased globally by 97.4 million since 1990, largely due to population growth and ageing.
The top risk factors include metabolic, such as high body mass index (BMI) and high fasting plasma glucose, followed by behavioral and environmental/occupational, like air pollution, lead exposure, and higher temperatures.
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