Heart Death Rates Worsening for Middle-Aged Adults

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"There is a major epidemic of obesity in the United States," Ford said. "There have been no major decreases in smoking. [Changes in] cholesterol levels are also flat. Also, hypertension in the United States is something people have to pay more attention to."

There is a steady drumbeat of public warnings and doctors' advice about these risk factors, noted Dr. Philip Greenland, a professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who wrote an accompanying editorial. But somehow the message still isn't getting through.

"People do know, and then again, they don't know," he said. "The information we've tried to get to patients is almost common knowledge. We're telling people what they already know. They've heard it a million times. Maybe they're waiting to hear something new."

The public may be getting a mixed message, Greenland added. "We've been telling people for years that we've conquered heart disease, that the mortality rates are going progressively down. But the risk factors exist, and to say that we've conquered the problem is a non sequitur."

The editorial was aimed at practicing physicians, Greenland said. "There is a tendency for physicians to ignore what is known about heart disease. I was trying to get across the idea that if we in the medical profession don't wake up, the gains we thought we achieved will be slipping away from us."

The increase in death rates has affected other areas of cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Martha Daviglus, a professor of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.

"For stroke, it is even worse," she said. "The decline in the last 10 years has been very bad."

The message on obesity and other factors of a healthy lifestyle are being ignored by younger Americans, Daviglus said.

"Young people think it's not going to happen to them," she said. "They're wrong."

More information

There's more on coronary risk factors at the American Heart Association.