Click play to listen to this article.

As people turn to matters of the heart this Valentine’s Day, a new analysis offers insights into the four most common chronic cardiovascular conditions.

Heart attacks are the most deadly, and come at a cost of nearly $80,000 per person per year.

Dr. William Wright, chief medical officer for Colorado Access, the state’s largest nonprofit health plan serving Medicaid participants, said the current trend in American medicine is to invest in high-tech trauma centers to treat heart attacks, but there are better and more cost-effective preventative options.

"It’s a lot cheaper to take care of someone’s lipids and blood pressure than it is to wait until they’re in the intensive-care unit in the hospital," he said. "That’s the most expensive way to take care of them."

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is one of the leading precursors to heart attacks and is the most prevalent condition among Coloradans, according to the new Chronic Conditions Analysis from the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, or CIVHC. Hypertension can be managed with medicine, diet and exercise, but Wright said it’s known as a silent killer because nearly half of people don’t know they have high blood pressure until they experience negative health impacts.

Nearly 15 percent of people living in Colorado’s rural areas live with hypertension, compared with slightly more than 10 percent in urban areas.

In 2023, said Robyn Burns, impact director for CIVHC, rural communities also had a slightly higher share of individuals with heart failure and non-ischemic heart disease.

"Rural communities have to travel greater distances," she said, "and have less access and potentially less options to care than those living in urban communities."

Wright said the best way to take care of your heart is to exercise – even just walking for 30 minutes four to five times per week. He also recommended to eat more vegetables and less refined sugars, stop smoking, and get help for depression or other behavioral-health issues. But Wright noted that too many Coloradans face a range of social barriers to better health. For example, their neighborhood may not be safe for walking because there are no sidewalks.

"There’s not access to a place that has healthy food choices," he said. "They’re eating foods that they’re buying down at the convenience store on the corner, which tend to be high fat and high processed and high sugar."