The report updates statistics on death and prevalence rates for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Cardiovascular disease accounted for about 41 percent of all deaths, or one out of every 2.4 deaths, and was listed as the primary or a contributing cause of death on more than 1.4 million death certificates that year. The fact is that it is just as devastating to women.
Cardiovascular disease kills more than half a million women each year.
That's more than the next 14 causes of death combined. Although coronary heart disease strikes men on average a decade sooner than women, the risk begins to rise as women approach menopause and continues to increase steadily with age. Although women have first heart attacks at later ages, they are more likely to die from them. Many women also don't realize that stroke is as serious a problem for them as it is for men. Risk factors of particular concern for women include elevated blood cholesterol, which affects a higher percentage of women over age 49 than men, physical inactivity and smoking.