Cardiovascular Disease Mortality by County, Race and/or Ethnic Population, United States, 2000-2019

“For clinical practice, these findings point to the value of integrating local epidemiology into risk assessment, outreach and care delivery," Mensah said. "Health systems and clinicians need to align prevention strategies with the dominant local causes and the populations experiencing the greatest burden.”

“Currently, population and community-level health interventions are typically focused on disease and medical risk factors, however, our analysis suggests that more emphasis may need to be placed on intervention that can improve social determinants of health, particularly for Black people. As examples, several trials have shown that income supplementation in addition to nutritional counseling can improve diet among populations at risk for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, interventions to improve housing have been shown to increase patient exercise levels and, in the long term, could decrease unhealthy outcomes such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”