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Heart Failure (HF) is a multi-faceted and life-threatening syndrome characterized by significant morbidity and mortality, poor functional capacity and quality of life, and high costs. HF affects more than 64 million people worldwide. Therefore, attempts to decrease its social and economic burden have become a major global public health priority. While the incidence of HF has stabilized and seems to be declining in industrialized countries, the prevalence is increasing due to the aging of the population, improved treatment of and survival with ischemic heart disease, and the availability of effective evidence-based therapies prolonging life in patients with HF. There are geographical variations in HF epidemiology. There is substantial lack of data from developing countries, where HF exhibits different features compared with that observed in the Western world. In this review, we provide a contemporary overview on the global burden of HF, providing updated estimates on prevalence, incidence, outcomes, and costs worldwide.
How many people are affected by heart failure?
Although we have made progress in the treatment of many forms of heart disease, heart failure is a growing problem in the United States. Current estimates are that nearly 6.5 million Americans over the age of 20 have heart failure. One major study estimates there are 960,000 new heart failure cases annually.
Heart failure (HF) is a complex, multifactorial syndrome resulting from an impaired heart function. From a clinical standpoint, HF is mainly characterized by symptoms such as dyspnoea, fatigue, and fluid retention. From an epidemiological perspective, HF imposes a relevant burden, with high prevalence and mortality rates. It has been estimated that there were over 37.7 million HF cases worldwide in 2016, and this number is expected to increase continuously during the next few decades.1 Although advances in medical therapy and device assistance have significantly improved the outcomes of HF, implications of HF are still dramatic. For instance, in a cohort study from UK, the age-adjusted first-year rates of all-cause mortality of HF were computed at 23.0 (95% CI 22.0–24.1) per 100 person-years during 2012–2015.2 Furthermore, besides the clinical burden, HF-related costs are particularly heavy, with an estimated yearly expenditure of US$108 billion globally.3 Therefore, it is an onus from the public health organisms to decrease the health and economic burden generated by HF.
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