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America’s heart disease hotspots have been revealed in a major new analysis \u2013 with Southern states recording dramatically higher death rates than the rest of the country.<\/p>\n
The study of CDC<\/a> data by healthcare company NiceRx found Oklahoma<\/a> has the highest rate of heart disease deaths in the US, while Minnesota<\/a> has the lowest.<\/p>\n Overall, heart disease kills nearly 700,000 Americans every year \u2013 or one person every 34 seconds \u2013 making it the nation’s leading cause of death.<\/p>\n Nationally, there are 201 deaths from heart disease per 100,000 people annually.<\/p>\n But in Oklahoma, the worst-hit state, the death rate rises to 251 per 100,000 people \u2013 almost 25 per cent above the national average.<\/p>\n Seven of the ten states with the highest death rates were in the South, including Mississippi<\/a>, Alabama<\/a>, Arkansas<\/a>, Louisiana<\/a>, Tennessee<\/a> and West Virginia<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the opposite end of the scale, states in the Western half of the country generally recorded the lowest rates.<\/p>\n Minnesota had the lowest heart disease death rate in the US, with 120 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Hawaii and Colorado.<\/p>\n