TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- The lifetime risk for heart failure is increasing, and prevalence is projected to continue accelerating, according to the HF Stats 2026 report published online Oct. 5 in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.
Eiran Z. Gorodeski, M.D., M.P.H., from the University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute in Cleveland, and colleagues presented an updated report on heart failure epidemiology and outcomes.
According to the report, the lifetime risk for heart failure is 24 percent. About one-third of U.S. adults without symptomatic heart failure already meet criteria for stage A, and an additional 24 to 34 percent have stage B (at risk for heart failure and pre-heart failure, respectively). The prevalence of heart failure is projected to accelerate considerably, with prevalence currently estimated at about 3 percent and projected to increase to 3.2, 3.6, and 3.8 percent by 2030, 2040, and 2050, respectively, driven by an aging population and increasing rates of obesity, hypertension, and other cardiometabolic risk factors.
Younger adults are increasingly affected by heart failure; heart failure hospitalization rates increased among adults younger than 65 years between 2010 and 2022, while rates declined among those aged 65 years and older. Between 2001 and 2020, crude heart failure mortality rates increased 121 percent among adults aged 25 to 44 years and 96 percent among those aged 45 to 64 years compared with increases of 21 to 23 percent among older adults.
"At the population level, the burden of heart failure continues to move in the wrong direction," Gorodeski said in a statement. "These findings underscore the urgency of translating what we know into better prevention, earlier recognition, greater use of proven therapies and continued research.”
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
