U.S. Heart Disease Death Rates Falling(ables -- are contributing to overweight ...),Health

Other 2005 data from the CDC revealed that fewer than one in three adults eat fruit two or three times a day, and only 27.2 percent eat vegetables two or more times per day.

Smoking, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease by two to three times, is another highly prevalent CVD risk factor. More than 46 million American adults are daily smokers, and about 4,000 people ages 12 to 17 begin smoking every day, the report said.

It also noted that the United States has increasing rates of diabetes, a major cardiovascular risk factor. It's estimated that the prevalence of diabetes in the United States will more than double between 2005 and 2050.

"Although we have made some substantial strides in understanding the causes of cardiovascular disease, the data in this publication show that we have a long way to go to capture people's attention and to implement the prevention and treatment programs we need," Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, one of the report authors and an associate professor in the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a prepared statement.

The report included good news about improvements in the quality of hospital care for CVD patients. A study of 159,168 heart failure patients treated at 285 U.S. hospitals during 2002-2004 found improvements in clinical outcomes and in the number of patients receiving counseling at discharge, smoking cessation counseling, prescription of beta blockers, and assessment of left ventricular function.

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