About 900,000 Americans die prematurely (before age 80) each year and 20 to 40 percent of those deaths were preventable, says new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A report in the CDC's weekly journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, said the five leading causes of death in the United States are heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, and unintentional injuries, which altogether accounted for 63 percent of all U.S. deaths in 2010.

Physician Tom Frieden said modifiable risk factors are largely to blame for each of the leading causes of death:

  • "Heart disease risks include tobacco use, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, poor diet, overweight, and lack of physical activity;
  • "Cancer risks include tobacco use, poor diet, lack of physical activity, overweight, sun exposure, certain hormones, alcohol, some viruses and bacteria, ionizing radiation, and certain chemicals and other substances;
  • "Chronic respiratory disease risks include tobacco smoke, second-hand smoke exposure, other indoor air pollutants, outdoor air pollutants, allergens, and exposure to occupational agents;
  • "Stroke risks include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, previous stroke, tobacco use, alcohol use, and lack of physical activity; and
  • "Unintentional injury risks include lack of seatbelt use, lack of motorcycle helmet use, unsafe consumer products, drug and alcohol use (including prescription drug misuse), exposure to occupational hazards, and unsafe home and community environments."

Many of these risks, said the CDCP study, are avoidable by making changes in personal behaviors.

The report analyzed premature deaths from each cause for each state from 2008 to 2010, with rates for each cause varying greatly between states.

Researchers calculated the number of deaths from each cause that would have been prevented if all states had same death rate as the states with the lowest rates and found that:

  • 34 percent of premature deaths from heart diseases, prolonging about 92,000 lives;
  • 21 percent of premature cancer deaths, prolonging about 84,500 lives;
  • 39 percent of premature deaths from chronic lower respiratory diseases, prolonging about 29,000 lives;
  • 33 percent of premature stroke deaths, prolonging about 17,000 lives; and
  • 39 percent of premature deaths from unintentional injuries, prolonging about 37,000 lives.

"As a doctor, it is heartbreaking to lose just one patient to a preventable disease or injury -- and it is that much more poignant as the director of the nation's public health agency to know that far more than a hundred thousand deaths each year are preventable," said Frieden. "With programs such as the CDC's Million Hearts initiative, we are working hard to prevent many of these premature deaths."

Harold W. Jaffe, the study's senior author and CDC's associate director for science, said he was confident "this report can help states set goals for preventing premature death from the conditions that account for the majority of deaths in the United States ... Achieving these goals could prolong the lives of tens of thousands of Americans."