More people living in rural areas of the United States are dying from heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases – a trend that emerged after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and appears to be driven by deaths among people under 65, a new study found. Rural residents also continue to have higher cardiovascular death rates than their urban counterparts, according to the research being presented Sunday at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago. The results underscore a "crisis" in rural America's cardiovascular health, said Dr.
Lucas X. Marinacci, lead author of the study. They highlight the need to curb rural poverty, expand health insurance coverage in rural areas, and raise public awareness about the importance of preventing and managing obesity and diabetes – key drivers of cardiovascular disease, he said.
"I think this is kind of sounding the alarm," said Marinacci, a cardiology fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School in Boston. Even before the pandemic, rural Americans were more likely to die from heart disease and stroke, in part due to high concentrations of poverty and higher rates of smoking, obesity and high blood pressure than among urban residents. Many residents in rural areas – who number about 66 million, according to census data – also have more trouble getting medical help and specialty care, whether because doctor's offices and hospitals may be farther away.