US deaths with rheumatic heart disease and heart failure rise
Among adults 55 and older, the age-adjusted death rate rose from 4.40 per 100,000 in 1999 to 4.82 per 100,000 in 2024.
Cohort study
Limit: The analysis relied on diagnoses listed on death records
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
US adults aged 55 and older were the focus of an observational analysis of national mortality records from 1999 to 2024. Researchers counted 73,657 deaths with both chronic rheumatic heart disease and heart failure listed anywhere among the causes. Rheumatic heart disease damages heart valves. Heart failure means the heart cannot pump blood adequately.
The researchers compared death rates adjusted to account for age differences. The increase accelerated over the last decade. Adults aged 75 and older had the highest average rates, with a marked acceleration after 2013. Women had higher average rates than men, but rates rose faster among men, narrowing the gap. Rates also rose steeply among non-Hispanic Black adults, while trends remained largely stable in the other racial groups studied.
Why it matters
Chronic rheumatic heart disease remains a preventable cause of heart valve damage and late-stage heart failure. Its changing burden in older adults prompted the authors to call for better surveillance and targeted prevention.
Caveats
This observational analysis relied on diagnoses listed on death records and could not establish what caused the trends. It covered US adults aged 55 and older and was reported in a conference abstract.
The paper
Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences; Tidal Health Nanticoke
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
