Chronic Disease

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One-Year Death Rates for Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Stroke Decline 

Chronic diseases – including diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease – are costly yet largely preventable. Chronic illnesses contribute to a substantial proportion of the nation’s health-related costs and remain the leading causes of illness, disability, and death in America.[1] This indicator reports prevalence and death data for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure/stroke. Also tracked are hospitalizations due to heart failure and hypertension. 

TREND

Heart Disease
The percentage of county residents ever diagnosed with heart disease decreased from 8.3% in 2022 to 5.5% in 2023. In 2023, San Bernardino County’s death rate due to heart disease was 164.3 deaths per 100,000 residents. This marks a 9.5% increase since 2014 when the death rate was 144.2 per 100,000 residents, and a one-year decrease of 8.2% since 2022 when the death rate was 179.0 per 100,000. 

HEART DISEASE DEATHS DECREASED BETWEEN 2022 AND 2023
Heart Disease: Percentage Ever Diagnosed and Death Rates in San Bernardino County, 2014-2023

Sources: (Percentage Ever Diagnosed) California Health Interview Survey, San Bernardino County, retrieved 2025; (Mortality Rate) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 2018-2023 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2024, and Mortality 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021.  Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.

Diabetes
The long-term trend is toward increasing diabetes diagnoses and deaths.  In 2023, 17.0% of adults in San Bernardino County had been diagnosed with diabetes in their lifetimes. This is an increase from 2022, when diabetes prevalence was 12.6%, and an increase from 2014, when 12.5% of adults in the county had a diabetes diagnosis. Deaths due to diabetes increased from 27.4 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2014 to 34.0 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2023. There has been, however, a decrease in deaths due to diabetes per 100,000 residents every year since 2020. 

BETWEEN 2022 AND 2023, DIABETES PREVALENCE INCREASED WHILE DEATHS DECREASED
Diabetes: Percentage Ever Diagnosed and Death Rates in San Bernardino County, 2014-2023

Sources: (Percentage Ever Diagnosed) California Health Interview Survey, San Bernardino County, retrieved 2025; (Mortality Rate) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 2018-2023 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2024, and Mortality 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021.  Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.

Blood Pressure / Stroke[2]
In 2023, 30.2% of adults in San Bernardino County had high blood pressure, which is a higher proportion than in 2022 when 28.8% of adults had high blood pressure. Deaths due to strokes, which are associated with high blood pressure, decreased 4.6%, from 41.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2022 to 39.3 in 2023. The long-term trend, however, is upward, with a 24% increase in deaths per 100,000 due to strokes since 2014. 

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE PREVALENCE INCREASED IN 2023 WHILE DEATHS DUE TO STROKE DECREASED
High Blood Pressure: Percentage Ever Diagnosed and Death Rates due to Stroke in San Bernardino County, 2014-2023

Sources: (Percentage Ever Diagnosed) California Health Interview Survey, San Bernardino County, retrieved 2025; (Mortality Rate) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 2018-2023 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2024, and Mortality 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021.  Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.

GEOGRAPHIC COMPARISON

San Bernardino County’s prevalence rate for heart disease (5.5%) was lowest among neighboring counties and the state. However, at 17.0% in 2023, San Bernardino County had the highest diabetes prevalence among neighboring counties compared and the overall statewide rate. Also in 2023, 30.2% of adults in San Bernardino County had high blood pressure, the highest among neighboring counties compared and California.  

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY HAS HIGHEST RATE OF DIABETES AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
County Comparison of the Percentage Ever Diagnosed with Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, or Heart Disease, 2023

Source: California Health Interview Survey

Hospitalizations Rates Due to Heart Failure and Hypertension Higher than California

In 2022, the hospitalization rates for heart failure (a chronic condition where the heart does not pump blood efficiently) and hypertension (high blood pressure) in San Bernardino County were 402.2 and 62.9 per 100,000 residents (risk adjusted), respectively. These are higher than the California hospitalization rate of 380.7 and 51.3 per 100,000 residents for heart failure and hypertension, respectively. The five-year trend for heart failure hospitalizations is down 5%, while the hospitalization rates for hypertension is up 18%.

 

Heart Failure

Hypertension

Source: HCAI Patient Discharge Data; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Prevention Quality Indicators, 2016-2022, ICD-10-CM) 


[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/about/index.html)

[2] More than half of strokes can be directly linked to existing high blood pressure, making high blood pressure an important controllable stroke risk factor (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2443694/).

1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/index.htm) 2Data for 2017 is considered unstable and should be interpreted with caution. 3The 2018 death rate for heart disease was not available by time of publication of this report. 4Fully 70% of strokes can be directly linked to existing high blood pressure, making high blood pressure the single most important controllable stroke risk factor.