---
type: source
title: "Cardiovascular Statistics in the United States, 2026: JACC Inaugural Annual Report"
author: "American College of Cardiology / JACC Stats"
url: https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2025.12.027
date: 2026-01-12
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: journal-article
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-04-08
priority: high
tags: [cardiovascular, hypertension, heart-failure, mortality, epidemiology, US-health, disparities]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

JACC inaugural annual Cardiovascular Statistics report (published January 2026). Summary of current state of US cardiovascular health across all major conditions.

Key findings:

**Hypertension:**
- Nearly 1 in 2 US adults meet current criteria for hypertension
- Treatment and control rates stagnant for 15 years
- Hypertension-related cardiovascular deaths NEARLY DOUBLED from 2000 to 2019: 23 → 43 per 100,000 population
- Men higher than women; Black adults higher than white adults

**Cardiovascular conditions broadly:**
- Long-term mortality gains "slowing or reversing" across: coronary heart disease, acute MI, heart failure, peripheral artery disease, stroke
- Ongoing gaps in quality of care
- Persistent health disparities

**Diabetes:**
- Prevalence rising sharply, especially younger adults and low-income populations
- Only half of adults achieve glycemic control
- Diabetes-related mortality continues to climb

**Heart failure specifically:**
- HF mortality has been increasing since 2012 (HFSA 2024 data)
- Rate now 3% higher than 25 years ago
- Projected HF population: 6.7M now → 8.7M (2030) → 10.3M (2040) → 11.4M (2050)
- Black adults experiencing fastest mortality rate increase, particularly under age 65

Harvard Gazette coverage: "American heart health worsening."
Medscape: "Heart risks rise, care lags: new stats expose harsh truths."
ACC press release: "JACC Issues Inaugural Report on State of U.S. Cardiovascular Health."

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the authoritative, comprehensive epidemiological confirmation of the CVD bifurcation thesis from Session 19. The hypertension death doubling (23→43/100k) is the specific data point I had from the CDC data in Session 19 (where I found hypertensive disease mortality doubling 15.8→31.9/100k). These numbers are slightly different (likely different denominator populations/methods), but the direction is consistent and confirmed by independent JACC analysis. The "long-term gains slowing or reversing" framing is precisely the bifurcation pattern.

**What surprised me:** The JACC is publishing this as their INAUGURAL annual report — they've never before done a comprehensive US cardiovascular statistics publication like the AHA's annual Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics. The fact that they're starting this series with data showing worsening trends is a strong institutional signal that the field recognizes a crisis narrative.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Age-adjusted trend data broken out by specific conditions (IHD vs HF vs hypertensive disease vs stroke) in the summary sources available. The distinction between improving (ischemic) and worsening (HF, hypertensive) subtypes — the core of the bifurcation thesis — may be in the full paper but not the press summaries. Extractor should pull the full JACC paper.

**KB connections:** Directly confirms: (1) US life expectancy driven by deaths of despair claim (though this is CV data not despair); (2) CVD bifurcation pattern from Session 19 (HF at all-time high, hypertension deaths doubled); (3) Epidemiological transition claim. The "stagnant treatment and control for 15 years" is the proxy inertia mechanism writ large — the system isn't failing to treat hypertension because it lacks drugs; it's failing because of structural access, adherence, and system design issues.

**Extraction hints:** Primary claim: "US hypertension-related cardiovascular mortality nearly doubled from 2000 to 2019 (23→43/100k) while treatment and control rates have stagnated for 15 years — structural access failure, not drug unavailability." Secondary: "Long-term CVD mortality gains are slowing or reversing across major cardiovascular conditions as of 2026, reversing decades of improvement."

**Context:** JACC (Journal of the American College of Cardiology) is the premier cardiology journal. This is the inaugural edition of what will be an annual statistics series. High credibility, no industry funding in the statistics report itself.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)

PRIMARY CONNECTION: US life expectancy driven by deaths of despair; CVD bifurcation pattern from Session 19
WHY ARCHIVED: First JACC-level comprehensive confirmation that US CV health is worsening across multiple metrics. The hypertension death doubling is the strongest single data point for the claim that structural misalignment (not drug availability) is driving the failure.
EXTRACTION HINT: The extractor should access the full JACC paper — the press summaries lack the sub-condition breakdown. Look specifically for IHD vs HF vs hypertensive disease age-adjusted mortality trends to confirm or enrich the bifurcation thesis.
