Avoiding 3 Risk Factors Could Lower Heart Failure Risk By As Much As 86%

Individuals who avoid hypertension, obesity, and diabetes by ages 45 and 55 years can lower later-life heart failure risk by as much as 86%, according to the results of a recent analysis.

In order to quantify the relationship between absence of heart failure risk factors and incident heart failure, researchers conducted a pooled, individual-level analysis sampling as part of 4 cohort studies: the Framingham Heart, Framingham Offspring, Chicago Heart Association Detection Project in industry, and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities studies. The analysis included participants with and without hypertension, obesity, or diabetes and combinations of the 3 factors, at index ages of 45 and 55 years through 95 years.
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Overall, 1677 incident heart failure events occurred for participants at age 45 years. Individuals with no risk factors had 73% to 85% lower risk of heart failure than those with all 3 risk factors and lived an average of 3 to 15 years longer free of heart failure than those with 1, 2, or 3 risk factors. Similar results were seen in individuals at index age 55 years.

“Prevention of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes by ages 45 years and 55 years may substantially prolong heart failure-free survival, decrease heart failure-related morbidity, and reduce the public health impact of heart failure,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:
Ahmad FS, Ning H, Rich JD, et al. Hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and heart failure–free survival: the cardiovascular disease lifetime risk pooling project. JCHF. 2016;4(12):911-919.