Interventions tailored by race and sex may help reduce the burden of heart failure, particularly in resource-limited areas, based on findings presented at AHA 2019 and published in JACC: Heart Failure.

Danielle M. Kubickia, BS, and colleagues studied 27,078 participants from the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS), none of which had prevalent heart failure and all of whom were receiving Centers for Medicare or Medicaid Services (CMS). The mean age of participants was 56 years, 69 percent were black and 63 percent were women. Researchers assessed the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, physical underactivity, high body mass index (BMI), smoking, high cholesterol and poor diet at enrollment.

Overall results showed that during a median of 5.2 years, 16 percent of participants developed heart failure. Hypertension and diabetes were the risk factors associated with greatest individual heart failure risk, while hypertension contributed the greatest population attributable risk (PAR) at 31.8 percent, followed by diabetes and physical underactivity (17 percent). Broken down by race, hypertension and diabetes were the only two factors associated with heart failure risk in black participants, while in white participants, smoking and high BMI were also associated with heart failure risk. Physical underactivity was a risk factor only in white women.

"In this high-risk low-income cohort, contributions of risk factors to heart failure varied, particularly by race," researchers said. "These findings may help prioritize individualized and public health interventions aimed at preventing heart failure, particularly in resource-limited areas with the greatest risk."

Keywords: AHA19, AHA Annual Scientific Sessions, Risk Factors, Body Mass Index, Medicaid, Public Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Medicare, Diabetes Mellitus, Heart Failure, Hypertension, Smoking, Cholesterol

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