• New research led by Keele University has found that obesity-related cardiovascular disease deaths tripled between 1999 and 2020 in the United States. 
• Black adults who lived in urban communities experienced more obesity-related cardiovascular disease deaths than those living in rural areas, whereas the reverse was true for all other racial groups. 
• Lead author and cardiologist Professor Mamas Mamas said the findings show the need to address obesity more effectively around the world, not just in the USA. 

Three-fold increase in deaths 

Research led by Keele University in collaboration with researchers from Canada, Israel, and the United States has found there was a three-fold increase in obesity-related heart disease deaths in the USA between 1999 and 2020. 

Publishing their findings in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the research team led by Keele’s Professor Mamas Mamas found that obesity-related cardiovascular disease deaths tripled from 2.2 per 100,000 population to 6.6 per 100,000 population between 1999 and 2020. 

The team studied data collected from 1999 to 2020 on 281,135 deaths in which obesity was recorded as a contributing factor in The Multiple Cause of Death database, which includes mortality and population counts from all U.S. counties. 

More adverse effects among different ethnic groups 

They also analysed race, gender, and setting (urban vs rural) among the groups to determine any differences in heart disease deaths, and found that obesity-related cardiovascular disease deaths were higher among Black individuals compared with any other racial group, at 6.7 per 100,000 population; followed by American Indian adults or Alaska Native adults at 3.8 per 100,000. 

Black women had the highest rates of obesity-related heart disease deaths than all others in the study. In other racial groups, men experienced more obesity-related heart disease deaths than women. 

Black adults living in urban areas had higher rates of obesity-related heart disease deaths compared with Black adults living in rural areas (6.8 versus 5.9 per 100,000), whereas rural living was associated with higher rates of obesity-related heart deaths for people in all other racial groups. 

Obesity remains a “global public health crisis” 

Although these findings relate to patients in the USA, lead author Professor Mamas, a Professor of Cardiology and a practicing interventional cardiologist, said the findings show an acute need to tackle obesity around the world. 

Professor Mamas said: “This is a global problem. The substantial rise in cardiovascular mortality related to obesity over the past two decades is in contrast to the decline in general cardiovascular mortality trends, which have steadily declined over the same time period.  

“Our work highlights that certain populations groups have been particularly impacted with an urgent need for strategies aimed at individual communities to better understand and tackle the social determinants of obesity and to guide policies and design interventions that may alleviate the population burden of both obesity and cardiovascular disease.”