Gallup: Chronic Diseases Decline in US

The number of chronic disease cases in the United States dropped between 2010 and 2011, according to a recently released Gallup poll.

Researchers found there were fewer American adults who reported having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or a heart attack. They also learned that lifetime diagnoses of asthma and cancer rates were maintained from the previous year.

Three in ten Americans adults say they have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, which continues to be the most frequently diagnosed condition in the United States. Younger American adults, age 30 and lower, are still the least likely to report high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart attacks, and cancer, than older adults.

Findings also confirm that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer have dropped since 2008. Obesity rates among young adults have also declined since 2008, thus, lowering some the chronic diseases associated with obesity.

Americans aged 45 to 64 who report having ever been diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes increased in 2011 from 2008, and the same holds true for the nations obesity rates.

The percentage of obesity among older American were on the rise since 2008, as well as the reports of seniors being diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and cancer.

Also, the percentage of seniors saying they had a heart attack dropped to 12 percent in 2011, from 13.2 percent in 2008. Ironically, seniors were reported to be less likely than young adults to report having ever been diagnosed with asthma.

Researchers also found that younger adults are the ones chiefly responsible for bringing down the nations rate of chronic disease. Older adults are more liable to report a number of chronic diseases in 2011, when studied against 2008. Adults aged 30 and younger were slightly less apt to report high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Findings were based on a telephone survey of 1,000 adults, age 18 and older, living in the 50 states and District of Columbia.