Prevent hypertension, diabetes in mid-life to lower heart failure risk

Preventing the development of hypertension, obesity and diabetes in mid-life -- between the age of 45 and 55 years -- can result in an 86 per cent lower risk of heart failure throughout the remainder of life, says a research.

Millions of people worldwide currently suffer from heart failure as well as face a significantly reduced quality of life and higher mortality rate.

The study found that hypertension, obesity and diabetes -- major risk factors as well as highly prevalent in individuals -- are preventable risk factors for heart failure, the researchers said.

Further, people with diabetes were found to have a particularly strong association with shorter heart failure-free survival, as those without diabetes lived on average between 8.6 and 10.6 years longer without heart failure.

Men at age 45 years without any of the three risk factors lived an average of 10.6 years longer free of heart failure, while women at age 45 without any of the three risk factors lived an average of 14.9 years longer without heart failure.

"The study adds to the understanding of how individual and aggregate risk factor levels, specifically in middle age, affect incident heart failure risk over the remaining lifespan," said John T. Wilkins from the Northwestern University at Evanston, in Illinois, in the US.

Prevention of hypertension, obesity and diabetes by ages 45 and 55 years may substantially prolong heart failure-free survival, decrease heart failure-related morbidity and reduce the public health impact of heart failure, the researchers noted.

The study was published in the journal JACC: Heart Failure.

--IANS

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