According to new research published recently in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation, in recent years, heart disease deaths have declined across the United States. The data added that some regions have reported less progress as compared to others.

Previous study conducted by the AHA detected that deaths caused by cardiovascular disease have seen drop of about 29% from 2003 to 2013. Even then, roughly 610,000 people lose lives because of heart disease in the United States each year, contributing to one in every four deaths, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a statement, Michele Casper, Ph.D., the study's lead author and an epidemiologist at the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, said, “Despite the overall decline in heart disease death rates, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, as well as one of the most widespread and costly health problems facing the nation”.

To perform the study the researchers inspected death certificates from residents of age group 35 years and above in over 3,000 US counties between 1973 and 2010.

From the analysis, they come to know about a significant geographic shift in death rates due to heart disease during this time.

The researchers noted that in the 1970's, the largest concentration of high death rates due to heart disease were in counties spreading form the Northeast across areas of Appalachia and into the Midwest, and also along coastal regions in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

However, with the passage of time, by 2010, the geographic high-rate clusters had made a move much more heavily to the south, down the Mason-Dixon Line.

The slowest falls in heart disease death rates, ranging from 9% to roughly 50% were mainly in counties, including Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.