Incidence/Prevalence
According to the American Heart Association ( AHA ) ( 2010 ), 64% of women and 50% of men who had a myocardial infarction ( MI ) ( “ heart attack “ ) were not aware that they had CAD. The average age of a person having a first MI is 64.5 years for men and 70.3 years for women ( AHA,2010 ). Almost 30% of patients who have an MI die within 5 years after the event ( AHA,2010 )
Every 25 seconds, a person in the United States has a major coronary event and 452,000 people die each year from an MI. Many people die from coronary heart disease without being hospitalized. Most of these are sudden deaths caused by cardiac arrest ( AHA, 2010 ).