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Heart Disease Kills More Young Women

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The Associated Press

Published: November 20, 2007

ATLANTA - For decades, heart disease death rates have been falling. But a new study shows a troubling turn - more women under 45 are dying of heart disease because of clogged arteries, and the death rate for men that age has leveled off.
Heart experts aren't sure what went wrong, but they think increasing rates of obesity and other risk factors are to blame.

The rates will have to be monitored to see whether this is the beginning of a real trend. But if the data holds, the study may be an glimpse of the impact of escalating obesity and diabetes on U.S. deaths, said Wayne Rosamond, a University of North Carolina epidemiology professor and expert on heart disease statistics.

"This could be a harbinger of things to come," Rosamond said.

To be sure, the overall trend is still positive: From 1980 through 2002, the death rate from blocked heart arteries was cut in half for men and women over 35. Improvements in treatment and preventive measures, including cholesterol-lowering medications, get the credit.

But what's going on with younger adults is startling, said Anthony DeMaria, editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, which is publishing the study released Monday.

"We have a pretty rosy view of how things are going in the war against cardiovascular disease," DeMaria said. "I view this paper as a wake-up call that says there is a very important segment of our population that needs some attention."

Researchers looked at U.S. vital statistics for artery-related deaths in adults ages 35 and older for the years 1980 through 2002, the most recent year for which data was available.

When they compared age groups, they detected the worrisome difference. The study found the death rate for women ages 35 to 44 rose from 1997 to 2002, when the rate was 8.2 per 100,000 women, the highest it's been since 1987.

The study was done at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Britain's University of Liverpool.

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