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Heart Failure in Women – Insights from the Framingham Heart Study

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Abstract

In the latter half of the 20th century, among participants of the Framingham Heart Study, incidence of heart failure (HF) has declined by about a third in women but not in men and survival after the onset of HF has improved in both sexes; however, HF remains highly lethal with over 50 % dying within 5 years after onset of HF. Overall, the 8-year relative risk of HF is 24 % lower in women compared with men. The 8-year incidence rates of HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF; EF >45 %) and HF with reduced EF (HFREF; EF ≤45 %) in women and HFPEF in men are similar; however, men have a 2-fold higher cumulative incidence of HFREF than HFPEF. The lifetime risk of HF is about 20 % in both women and men at 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 years of age. Contribution of hypertension and diabetes mellitus to the risk of HF was more prominent in women than in men. Serum levels of several biomarkers were distinctly different in women compared with men and had differential effects on left ventricular structure and function; however, the strength and direction of the association between biomarkers levels and HF risk were generally similar in women and men. In individuals with HF, about two-thirds of the underlying cause of death and about one-half of the immediate cause of death were due to cardiovascular causes. Non-cardiovascular underlying and immediate causes of death were more evident in HFPEF.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Kenchaiah was partly supported by the Translational Research Institute (TRI), grants UL1TR000039 and KL2TR000063 through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. This work was also partly supported by grant No. N01-HC-25195 (Dr. Vasan) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W Markham St., #532, Little Rock, AR, 72205, USA

    Satish Kenchaiah

  2. Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA

    Satish Kenchaiah & Ramachandran S. Vasan

  3. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Satish Kenchaiah

  4. Sections of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, and Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Ramachandran S. Vasan

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  1. Satish Kenchaiah
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Correspondence to Satish Kenchaiah.

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Kenchaiah, S., Vasan, R.S. Heart Failure in Women – Insights from the Framingham Heart Study. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther 29, 377–390 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10557-015-6599-0

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