Abstract 11287: Trends in Pulmonary Embolism Mortality Rates by Age Group in the United States, 1999-2019

Introduction: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of mortality in the United States. Recent reports indicate that PE-related mortality rates have increased among individuals 25-64 and 65-79 years old and plateaued among individuals ≥80 years old. A narrowly focused and clinically meaningful age group analysis is necessary. Methods: Death certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database were examined to determine all-cause PE mortality trends from 1999 to 2019 among adults 25-39, 40-54, 55-69, 70-84, and ≥85 years old. The crude death rates for individual years were calculated by dividing the number of PE-related deaths by the corresponding population. Annual percentage change (APC) was calculated to determine trends. Results: Among individuals 25-39 years old, the death rate increased from 1.76 to 2.01 (APC 0.7 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2 to 1.1]) between 1999 and 2014 and continued to increase from 2.01 to 2.42 (APC 4.1 [95% CI 1.8 to 6.5]) between 2014 and 2019. Among those 40-54 years old, the death rate increased from 5.7 to 7.46 (APC 2.0 [95% CI 1.6 to 2.5]) between 2007 and 2019. Among those 55-69 years old the death rate increased from 15.64 to 18.53 (APC 2.2 [95% CI 1.9 to 2.5]) between 2010 and 2019. Among those 70-84 years old the death rate decreased from 49.46 to 43.96 (APC -0.7 [95% CI -0.8 to -0.5]) between 1999 and 2019. While death rate among those older than 85 decreased from 112.31 to 100.53 (APC -1.3 [95% CI -1.9 to -0.7]) between 2007 and 2016, the death rate among this cohort increased non-significantly between 2016 and 2019. Conclusions: Despite significant improvements in PE risk stratification and clinical management, recent PE related mortality rates increased significantly among those younger than 69 years old. The APC in mortality was highest among those 25-39 years old. Among individuals older than 70 years old, recent death rates decreased or plateaued.