Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

The Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021, cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories were examined. The causes of death globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990. In descending order, causes were coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. However, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardized cause of death, with 94.0 deaths (95% UI: 89.2–100.0) per 100,000 of the population. Therefore, the long-standing gains in life expectancy and decreases in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. There are estimates produced by the GBD study for several behavioral, environmental, and metabolic risk factors for CVDs. Of these risk factors, ambient air pollution, solid fuels from household air pollution, tobacco smoking, secondhand tobacco smoke, exposure to lead, low and high temperature, obesity, high systolic blood pressure (BP), high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high fasting plasma glucose, kidney dysfunction, dietary risks, high alcohol intake, and low physical activity are considered important for causing CVDs. Hypertension, in particular high systolic BP is the major risk factor globally for attributable premature deaths due to CVDs, accounting for 10.8 million (95% CI: 9.15-12.1 million) deaths due to CVDs and 11.3 million (95% CI: 9.59-12.7 million) deaths overall in 2021 [11]. These deaths have been particularly linked to CAD and stroke. The all-cause DALYs in 2021 due to high BP were 2,770 per 100,000 (95% CI: 2,310-3,160 per 100,000). Clinical trials have found that more intensive targets for decreasing BPs, LDL-C and plasma glucose and other risk factors can reduce CVDs events compared with more conventional or standard control of these risk factors in middle-aged and older adults.

Keywords: Mortality, morbidity, hypertension, coronary artery disease, risk factors