Heart disease in Appalachia

Way back when I was in college, a topic of discussion in my Appalachian politics class was whether southeast Ohio was really part of Appalachia or if Appalachia ended at the Ohio River.

I don't remember the consensus, but I do know that a lot of people from my part of southeast Ohio died of heart disease, including both my parents and at least one brother.

Heart disease runs in my family, so this article from the AP today hits home:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Doctors, lawmakers and specialists are launching a large-scale public health network to change one of the stark facts of Appalachian life: residents here are 20 percent more likely to die from heart disease than the rest of the country.

The goal is to focus attention and money on preventing cardiovascular disease in the 13 Appalachian states, especially their poor, rural and underserved areas.

The task won’t be easy. States in Appalachia lead the country in heart disease risk factors like smoking, obesity and lack of exercise, and those factors could partly come from long-held cultural practices and beliefs.

(Comment: A contributing factor is that we don't enjoy as much of self-destructive behavior as other regions of the country. Also, it could be genetic.).

That’s why the two-day conference that began Thursday isn’t just aimed at doctors and specialists, but at lawmakers and even historians, who can explain the unique characteristics of the region and how a public health network could be created here.

Ultimately, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — one of the organizers of the conference — sees a pan-Appalachian effort focused on improving the overall rates in America by focusing on the region where heart disease is most severe. ...

Four of the five states with the highest rates of common heart conditions are in Appalachia, according to the CDC. West Virginia is the highest in the country, with about 10.4 percent of adults reporting a common heart condition such as coronary heart disease, compared to a national average of about 6.5 percent.

Four Appalachian states also rank in the top five for the highest rate of cardiovascular disease-related deaths, according to the American Heart Association, which also sponsored the conference.

I'll have to dig into this more.