2020 Cardiovascular Disease Stats: US Death Rates Remain High - Essay Sample

Introduction

Each year, the American Heart Association in conjunction with government health agencies compiles a document containing up-to-date statistics on heart disease and stroke in relation to the factors that contribute to cardiovascular health. This includes health behavior such as physical activities, diet, and weight of individuals. According to the document, since 1919, cardiovascular diseases have accounted for the most deaths amongst major causes of death in the United States each year. Coronary heart disease accounts for most of the deaths at 45.1% with stroke following at 16.5% of the deaths, high blood pressure accounts for 9.1%, heart failure accounts for 8.5% of the deaths (Benjamin et al., 2018).

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According to the annual report done by United Health Foundation, the people living in urban centers account for more reports (6.4%) compared to those in suburban areas (5.5%) ("Explore Heart Disease in California | 2018 Annual Report", 2019). Also, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease was the leading cause of death in 2017 with 62,797 deaths. The report also showed that Hypertension caused 5,325 of deaths in that year ranking it third among the state with the most number of death due to hypertension ("Stats of the State of California", 2019).

These reports and statistics indicate the prevalence of heart-related diseases and the death toll they incur. These diseases are majorly lifestyle related, affecting people living in urban areas more, and if people could modify their daily life to include exercise and healthier diets, the cases of these diseases would be reduced (Teo et al., 2013). It is, therefore, important to find ways to help the society understand the significance of a healthy lifestyle and assist them in undertaking activities that promote it. The program intends to carry out this. The strategies that the program will incorporate are: educate society members on the importance of participating in physical activities, educate them on the importance of healthy diets, increase walking and biking, reduce alcohol misuse among adults, decrease adult obesity and diabetes. These are ways to improve healthy living in the community while increasing their life expectancy (Franco, 2015). Various initiatives will be set up to facilitate these in the urban community.

To encourage community members to engage in physical activities, there needs to be a forum which supports these activities. The program will seek to convince companies in which the members of the community attend their daily jobs to create partnerships where the companies form teams to engage in competitive sporting activities amongst them. Such activities include soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis. The companies will find these activities as ways to give morale to their employees while providing them with opportunities to exercise. The sporting activities would be carried out in periods of their choosing.

The second strategy involves using local media as a tool to influence a healthy lifestyle among the people. Since most people attend jobs daily and have very little time to attend meetings or education forums, the most effective way to reach the would be through advertisements. Using the local billboards and banners as means, the program will create enticing adverts on healthy lifestyle choices such as taking healthy diets like organic foods and a lot of green food, avoiding junk food which is a source of a lot of the excess body fat, and avoiding processed foods. One would also promote simple home aerobic exercises such as press-ups, sit-ups and other outdoor activities such as taking walks and bike riding.

The program also promotes the making of kitchen gardens which would prove to be easy sources for organic fresh vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage. The program will create brochures and distribute them door to door providing instructions on how to go about it, its importance and also provide contact information in which the individuals could contact the program assistant manager if they needed assistance.

References

Benjamin, E., Virani, S., Callaway, C., Chamberlain, A., Chang, A., & Cheng, S. et al. (2018). Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2018 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 137(12). doc: 10.1161/cir.0000000000000558 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29386200

Explore Heart Disease in California | 2018 Annual Report. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/CHD/state/CA

Franco, O. (2015). Effects of Physical Activity on Life Expectancy with Cardiovascular Disease. Archives Of Internal Medicine, 165(20), 2355. doc: 10.1001/archinte.165.20.2355 https://www.academia.edu/38238711/Lifelong_Aerobic_Exercise_Nilsson_and_Tarnopolsky_2019_.pdf

Stats of the State of California. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/states/california/california.htm

Teo, K., Lear, S., Islam, S., Mony, P., Dehghan, M., & Li, W. et al. (2013). Prevalence of a Healthy Lifestyle Among Individuals with Cardiovascular Disease in High-, Middle- and Low-Income Countries. JAMA, 309(15), 1613. doc: 10.1001/jama.2013.3519 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23592106