Findings from a study conducted in Worcester, Massachusetts, confirm that heart failure is an important cause of death and disability.

As reported in the American Journal of Medicine, Dr. Robert J. Goldberg and colleagues, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, determined the number of patients hospitalized with new onset heart failure in Worcester in 2000. The authors then looked at death rates and evaluated various prognostic factors.

A total of 2604 subjects were diagnosed with heart failure during the study period, the investigators note. This equates to 219 people being newly diagnosed with heart failure for every 100,000 people in the population.

Risk factors for heart failure were advancing age and female gender, the investigators note. Specifically, the rates of heart failure among women and men were 250 and 194 per 100,000 population, respectively.

Roughly 5 percent of people hospitalized with heart failure died, the report indicates. Risk factors for a fatal outcome included older age, not being overweight, having a history of anemia or stroke, and various laboratory abnormalities.

“The results of the present investigation confirm that acute heart failure represents a considerable burden to the health of the community, particularly in older individuals,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, July 2005.