ATLANTA — One in 100 black men and women develop heart failure before age 50, according to one of the first long-term studies to look at the life-threatening condition in younger adults.
The research suggests blacks in that age group suffer the condition at a rate 20 times higher than whites do — a difference more pronounced than earlier studies had indicated. However, those findings are based on a very small number of heart-failure cases, the authors said, so more study is needed.
The take-away message is that doctors should be more aggressive about treating young blacks who may be at risk, some experts said. “Usually this is a disease of the elderly,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, one of the study’s authors. “When this disease happens in 30- and 40-year-olds, it’s quite dramatic.”
The research appears in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.
In the new study, the researchers looked at data from more than 5,100 blacks and whites in Chicago; Minneapolis; Birmingham, Ala.; and Oakland, Calif. The participants were ages 18 to 30 at the time they joined the study more than 20 years ago.
The researchers found that a disproportionate number of blacks developed high blood pressure in as young adults and went on to suffer heart failure. Blacks also were more likely to develop diabetes and chronic kidney disease, and to suffer an impairment in the heart muscle’s ability to contract.
It’s not clear why more blacks develop those problems so early, Bibbins-Domingo said. Possible explanations range from income and social environment to genetics, she said.
