Few Americans attain CV health goals associated with decreased mortality
A recent study from JAMA indicates that most Americans aren't meeting the necessary goals to lower CV risks.
Meeting a greater number of guideline-specified cardiovascular (CV) health goals was associated with a lower risk of total and CV mortality. Unfortunately, the proportion of Americans meeting these goals is low, according to a recent study published online in JAMA.
CV disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for about 1 in every 3 deaths annually, and resulting in estimated overall costs of $444 billion.
They found that only 1.2% of Americans sampled from the NHANES 2005-2010 data set met all 7 of the above health goals. Moreover, this number was down from 2.0% in the 1988-1994 cohort.
The prevalence of current smoking declined from 27.9% to 22.6% from the 1988-1994 to the 2005-2010 cohort, but the prevalence of adults with desirable total cholesterol levels (<200 mg/dL) and blood pressure (<120 mm Hg/<80 mm Hg) was unchanged, and the prevalence of consuming a healthy diet, having a BMI<25, and having a fasting blood glucose <100 mg/dL declined (worsened) significantly.
"The lack of improvement, and in some cases worsening, is very concerning given that mortality rates are inversely related to the number of the 7 criteria met," noted Formulary board member Craig I. Coleman, PharmD, associate professor of pharmacy, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn.
Adjusted hazard ratios were 0.49 (95% CI, 0.33–0.74; P<.001) for all-cause mortality, 0.24 (95% CI, 0.13–0.47; P<.001) for CVD mortality, and 0.30 (95% CI, 0.13–0.68; P<.001) for ischemic heart disease mortality for Americans who met 6 or more of the health goals compared to 1 or fewer.
Dr Coleman said, "As healthcare professionals . . . we need to further emphasize the importance of lifestyle modification to our patients and optimize their pharmacotherapy."
David Calabrese of OptumRx Talks Top Three Drugs in Pipeline, Industry Trends in Q2
July 1st 2020In this week's episode of Tuning Into The C-Suite podcast, MHE's Briana Contreras chatted with David Calabrese, R.Ph, MHP, who is senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer of pharmacy care services company, OptumRx. David is also a member of Managed Healthcare Executives’ Editorial Advisory Board. During the discussion, he shared the OptumRx Quarter 2 Drug Pipeline Insights Report of 2020. Some of the information shared includes the three notable drugs currently being reviewed or those that have been recently approved by the FDA. Also discussed were any interesting industry trends to watch for.
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