Heart Failure - Risk Factors - Risk Factors

Many factors can raise your risk of heart failure. Some factors you can control, such as lifestyle habits. Others you cannot, including your age, race, or ethnicity. Your risk of heart failure goes up if you have more than one of these factors. 

• Age. People 65 years or older have a higher risk of heart failure because aging can weaken and stiffen your heart. Older adults are also more likely to have other health conditions that cause heart failure.  
• Family history and genetics. Your risk of heart failure is higher if people in your family have been diagnosed with heart failure. Certain gene  mutations  can also raise your risk. These mutations make your heart tissue weaker or less flexible. 
• Lifestyle habits. An unhealthy diet, smoking, using cocaine or other illegal drugs, heavy alcohol use, and lack of physical activity can raise your risk of heart failure. 
• Other medical conditions. Any heart or blood vessel condition, serious lung disease, or infection such as HIV or SARS-CoV-2 may raise your risk of heart failure. Long-term health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease, anemia, thyroid disease, or iron overload also raise your risk. Cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy can injure your heart and raise your risk. Atrial fibrillation, a common type of irregular heart rhythm, can also cause heart failure. 
• ​​​​​​​Race or ethnicity. African Americans are more likely to have heart failure than people of other races. They also often have more serious cases of heart failure and at a younger age. 
• ​​​​​​​Sex. Heart failure is common in both men and women, although men often develop heart failure at a younger age than women. Women more commonly have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which occurs when the heart does not fill with enough blood. Men are more likely to have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Women often have worse symptoms than men.