The Number one killer in the United States and West Virginia today is cardiovascular disease. In recent years, there has been a significant decline in the number of deaths from CVD due to changes in personal health behaviors as well as improvements in medical technology. However, the declines in West Virginia have been substantially lower than those experienced in the nation as a whole, especially in CVD mortality. Despite the declines, the toll from CVD mortality is high. Tobacco use, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, and sedentary lifestyle, are modifiable risk behaviors that have been linked to cardiovascular disease.
Diabetes substantially increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
The prevalence of all these risk factors have been found to be higher in West Virginia than in the nation as a whole. For questions concerning page content, see contact information on the Contents page.