This map shows model-based, county-level percentage decline in heart disease death rates from 1973 to 2010 in the Southern United States. During this 37-year period, the fastest declines (in yellow) occurred primarily on the East Coast and central and west Texas, and the slowest declines (in dark blue) were concentrated largely in the counties along the Mississippi River and parts of Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Alabama, which are also areas characterized by extremely high spatially concentrated poverty rates (6).
Data source: National Center for Health Statistics.