Global Burden of Cardiovascular Diseases and Risk Factors, 1990–2019

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. GBD, an ongoing multinational collaboration to provide comparable and consistent estimates of population health over time, used all available population-level data sources on incidence, prevalence, case fatality, mortality, and health risks to produce estimates for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. Prevalent cases of total CVD nearly doubled from 271 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 257 to 285 million) in 1990 to 523 million (95% UI: 497 to 550 million) in 2019, and the number of CVD deaths steadily increased from 12.1 million (95% UI:11.4 to 12.6 million) in 1990, reaching 18.6 million (95% UI: 17.1 to 19.7 million) in 2019. The global trends for disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years of life lost also increased significantly, and years lived with disability doubled from 17.7 million (95% UI: 12.9 to 22.5 million) to 34.4 million (95% UI:24.9 to 43.6 million) over that period. The total number of DALYs due to IHD has risen steadily since 1990, reaching 182 million (95% UI: 170 to 194 million) DALYs, 9.14 million (95% UI: 8.40 to 9.74 million) deaths in the year 2019, and 197 million (95% UI: 178 to 220 million) prevalent cases of IHD in 2019. The total number of DALYs due to stroke has risen steadily since 1990, reaching 143 million (95% UI: 133 to 153 million) DALYs, 6.55 million (95% UI: 6.00 to 7.02 million) deaths in the year 2019, and 101 million (95% UI: 93.2 to 111 million) prevalent cases of stroke in 2019. Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of disease burden in the world. CVD burden continues its decades-long rise for almost all countries outside high-income countries, and alarmingly, the age-standardized rate of CVD has begun to rise in some locations where it was previously declining in high-income countries. There is an urgent need to focus on implementing existing cost-effective policies and interventions if the world is to meet the targets for Sustainable Development Goal 3 and achieve a 30% reduction in premature mortality due to noncommunicable diseases.

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of Milan IT
• Harvard University US
• Mayo Clinic US
• University of Kentucky US
• Tufts Medical Center US
• Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation US
• University of Douala CM
• University of Alabama at Birmingham US
• Florida International University US
• Mayo Clinic in Florida US
• The Kids Research Institute Australia AU
• Case Western Reserve University US
• Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico IT
• University School US
• University of British Columbia CA
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke US
• Boston University US
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai US
• Medical University of Graz AT
• Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda IT
• University of Edinburgh GB
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences IN
• Jacksonville College US
• Massachusetts General Hospital US
• Hospital Clínic de Barcelona ES
• Northwestern University US
• Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore IT
• Stanford University US
• University of Cape Town ZA
• Ochsner Health System US
• Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center US
• University of California, San Diego US
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro BR
• University of Michigan US
• Columbia University US
• National Heart Lung and Blood Institute US
• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center US
• Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza IT
• University of Washington US
• Johns Hopkins University US
• The University of Sydney AU
• Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute US
• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais BR
• Essentia Health US
• WinnMed US

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