CDC: Heart failure mortality up 2012 through 2014

(HealthDay)—The age-adjusted mortality rates from heart failure decreased from 2000 to 2012 but increased from 2012 through 2014, according to a December data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Hanyu Ni, Ph.D., and Jiaquan Xu, M.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, used data from multiple cause-of-death files to examine trends in heart failure-related mortality from 2000 through 2014. Trends were described by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and place of death.

The researchers found that from 2000 through 2012 there was a decrease in the age-adjusted rate for heart failure-related deaths, which then increased from 2012 to 2014. Non-Hispanic blacks had a higher mortality rate for heart failure than non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic populations. In all age groups, the mortality rate was higher for men than women. Over time, the gap in the mortality rate increased for adults aged 45 to 64 years and 85 years and older. From 2000 to 2014 there was a decrease in the percentage of heart failure-related deaths that occurred in a hospital. During this same time period there was a decrease in the percentage of heart failure-related deaths for adults aged 45 years and over with coronary heart disease as the underlying cause of death, from 34.9 to 23.9 percent.

"The underlying cause of heart failure-related deaths for adults aged 45 and over was less likely to be coronary heart disease, but more likely to be other cardiovascular diseases and non-cardiovascular diseases (such as cancer, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and kidney disease) in 2014 compared with 2000," the authors write.