“I think it is likely true that 2020 was not a one-year blip,” Stephen Sidney, MD, director of research clinics at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, told WSJ.
Dr. Sidney led a study analyzing data from the CDC’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database between 2011 and 2020. The findings were published March 23 in JAMA Network Open.
Key findings:
- The U.S. mortality rate jumped 15.9 percent in 2020 overall.
- From 2011-19, the number of heart disease deaths increased from 596,577 to 659,041 deaths, and stroke deaths increased from 128,932 to 150,005 deaths.
- From 2019-20, heart disease and stroke deaths increased by 37,934 deaths and 10,262 deaths, respectively.
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