High-poverty rural regions in the Southern U.S. have the highest cardiovascular disease-associated death rate, according to a report published Aug. 16 in the Journal of Rural Health.
Researchers from the CDC used 2021 county-level population and mortality data to analyze cardiovascular disease related deaths among adults ages 35-64. Counties were grouped into four categories: high-poverty rural, high-poverty urban, low-poverty rural, and low-poverty urban.
Southern, high-poverty rural areas reported the highest cardiovascular disease-related death rate in the country, with 256 deaths associated with cardiovascular disease per 100,000. This rate is higher than the national rate for high-poverty rural areas of 191 per 100,000, according to the report.