Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Heart Failure Deaths Rising in Younger Adults
Clinical Breakthroughs

Heart Failure Deaths Rising in Younger Adults

By Marla PaulMay 10, 2019
Share
Facebook Twitter Email

Listen to an episode of the Breakthroughs Podcast on this study:

 

Black men under 65 have biggest increase in premature deaths

Sadiya Khan, ’09 MD, ’14 MSc, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist, was the senior author of the study that found death rates due to heart failure on the rise.

Death rates due to heart failure are now increasing, and this increase is most prominent among younger adults under 65, considered premature death, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

The increase in premature death from heart failure was highest among black men under age 65.

This study is showing for the first time that death rates due to heart failure have been increasing since 2012. The rise in deaths comes despite significant advances in medical and surgical treatments for heart failure in the past decade.

The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“The success of the last three decades in improving heart failure death rates is now being reversed, and it is likely due to the obesity and diabetes epidemics,” said Sadiya Khan, ’09 MD, ’14 MSc, ’10 ’12 ’16 ’17 GME, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and a Northwestern Medicine cardiologist. “We focused on patients with heart failure because they have the highest mortality related to cardiovascular death. They have a prognosis similar to metastatic lung cancer.”

An estimated 6 million adults in the U.S. have heart failure. It’s the number one reason older adults are admitted to the hospital, Khan said.

“Given the aging population and the obesity and diabetes epidemics, which are major risk factors for heart failure, it is likely that this trend will continue to worsen,” she said.

Recent data that show the average life expectancy in the U.S. also is declining, which compounds Khan’s concern that cardiovascular death related to heart failure may be a significant contributor to this change.

The study used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research data, which includes the underlying and contributing cause of death from all death certificates in the U.S. between 1999 to 2017 for 47,728,569 individuals. Investigators analyzed the age-adjusted mortality rate for black and white adults between the age of 35 to 84 years who died from heart failure.

Simply put, heart failure is when the heart muscle doesn’t function properly in its squeezing or relaxing functions. It causes symptoms like shortness of breath and swelling. When the heart can’t adequately squeeze to pump blood, it’s called heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; when the heart can’t relax it’s called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

“To combat this disturbing trend, we need to focus on improving the control of risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes,” Khan said. “Healthy lifestyle changes promoting a normal body mass index also can protect from developing heart failure as well as engaging in regular physical activity and consuming a healthy, well-balanced diet.”

In future research, Khan said she wants to better understand what causes the disparities in cardiovascular death related to heart failure.

Research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant KL2TR001424.

Other Northwestern authors include Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, chair and Eileen M. Foell Professor of Preventive Medicine and senior associate dean for Clinical and Translational Research; Matthew Feinstein, ’11 MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology; and Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, the Mary Harris Thompson Professor and chief of Epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine; and first author Peter Glynn, MD.

Cardiology Public Health Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Investigating the Connection Between Steps and Heart Disease Risk

Feb 1, 2023

Transforming the Way Cancer Vaccines are Designed and Made

Jan 30, 2023

Calcium Channels Regulate Neuroinflammation and Neuropathic Pain 

Jan 27, 2023

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Investigating the Connection Between Steps and Heart Disease Risk

Feb 1, 2023

Medical School Faculty Named AAAS Fellows

Jan 31, 2023

Transforming the Way Cancer Vaccines are Designed and Made

Jan 30, 2023

Calcium Channels Regulate Neuroinflammation and Neuropathic Pain 

Jan 27, 2023

Changes in Medical School Leadership

Jan 26, 2023
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-24
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-16
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-14
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-5
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-6
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-10
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-8
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-18
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-23
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-25
Feinberg_In_Vivo_20221209_tcrawford-26

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2023 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.