Prevalence of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases and risk factors by region and urbanization in the United States.

Cardiovascular and pulmonary mortality rates vary among US regions and places of varying levels of urbanization. Morbidity rarely has been analyzed within regions by urbanization level. Therefore, data from the National Health Interview Survey were examined for geographic patterns for 1983 through 1987. The most consistent finding was high rates of self-reported cardiovascular disease in non-metropolitan areas of the South. Otherwise, geographic variation of rates of self-reported disease prevalence with region and urbanization was not consistent across age and sex groups. Nor did rates consistently parallel patterns reported for mortality, with the exception of high rates in the nonmetropolitan South and relatively low rates in some groups in metropolitan areas outside central cities. Heart disease and ischemic heart disease patterns did not parallel patterns of high blood pressure, smoking, or low education, except for the tendency of all to be high in the nonmetropolitan South. In white men aged 45 to 64, the ischemic heart disease prevalence rate in the nonmetropolitan South was nearly twice that in the West or in the metropolitan Northeast. In blacks, rates of heart disease were lowest in metropolitan areas outside central cities and similar in central cities and nonmetropolitan areas. In the South, a similar pattern was seen in the only region with adequate numbers of nonmetropolitan-dwelling blacks in the sample. In blacks aged 45 to 64, rates of high blood pressure were lowest in metropolitan areas outside central cities and highest in nonmetropolitan areas, with little variation among regions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)