The report cited several reasons for the predicted rise but did not mention COVID-19 vaccines.
What's the ratio of Men to Women in the US?
The AHA reported on June 4, "The projected rise in heart disease and stroke — along with several key risk factors, including high blood pressure and obesity — is likely to triple related costs to $1.8 trillion by 2050, according to two American Heart Association presidential advisories published Tuesday in the AHA journal Circulation. One report looks at the projected increase in cardiovascular disease rates in the decades ahead, while the other projects their total related costs."
"The landscape of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. is seeing the arrival of a near-perfect storm," Dr. Dhruv S. Kazi, vice chair of the advisory writing group, said in a press release.
Kazi is head of health economics, associate director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology, and director of the cardiac critical care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
"The last decade has seen a surge of cardiovascular risk factors such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, each of which raises the risks of developing heart disease and stroke," Kazi continued. "It is not surprising that an enormous increase in cardiovascular risk factors and diseases will produce a substantial economic burden."
The AHA also reported that from 2020 to 2050, high blood pressure is expected to rise from 51.2% to 61% of the U.S. population.
"The last of the Baby Boomers will hit 65 in 2030, so about 1 in 5 people in the U.S. will be over 65, outnumbering children for the first time in U.S. history," Kazi said. "Since cardiovascular risk increases with age, the aging population increases the total burden of cardiovascular disease in the country."