Is Heart-Failure Incidence Declining?

The number of new cases of heart failure in the U.S. has increased from 250,000 in 1970 to about 550,000 currently (AHA, Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics--2003 Update). To analyze temporal trends, researchers examined data from 10,311 participants in the Framingham Heart Study (age range at baseline in 1948, 28-62).

From 1950 through 1999, 1075 (10.4%) of the Framingham participants developed heart failure. When the 2 decades from 1950 through 1969 were used as a reference period, age-adjusted heart-failure incidence per 100,000 person-years remained relatively stable in men but declined significantly in women over the 3 decades from 1970 through 1999. The most notable change in patient demographics was an increase in the mean age at hear…