U.S. News: Americans Are Dying Younger By Heart Attack

 

“The last thing someone in their 30s or 40s should worry about is dying of a heart attack. But new research shows more are.

 

The proportion of adults ages 18 to 54 who died in a hospital of a severe first heart attack rose 57% between 2011 and 2022, according to a study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Most of those who died were men, but women died at higher rates than men.

 

The study offers the latest evidence of worsening health among younger U.S. adults, including deaths from conditions traditionally tied to aging, such as heart disease and cancer.

 

Poorer health among younger adults is one reason heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., despite decades of medical advances that have saved millions of lives from heart attacks and other life-threatening cardiac events.

 

The increase among 18- to 54-year-olds is especially concerning because mortality from heart attacks has generally been declining, said Dr. Mohan Satish, a clinical cardiovascular-disease fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who was lead author of the study.

 

At least three-quarters of heart attacks among young and middle-aged adults are first-time heart attacks, he said. Risk factors driving the increase included diabetes, chronic kidney disease and drug use, the study found. Low income could also play a role, if a person can't afford to get treatment, Satish said.

 

A higher percentage of women than men had diabetes, obesity and chronic kidney disease and were of low income, the study found.

 

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that women are facing serious heart risks. A report published this week in Circulation, another American Heart Association journal, projected 59% of adult women will have hypertension by 2050, up from 49% in 2020.

 

The latest study analyzed medical records of one million adults under 55 hospitalized with their first heart attack. It found the death rate increased among those who had severe heart attacks, which is when a blood vessel that feeds the heart is completely blocked.

 

The findings signal "we have this epidemic of cardiovascular risk," said Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox, a cardiologist, professor and health-policy researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: Americans Are Dying Younger By Heart Attack. McKay, Betsy.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 27 Feb 2026: A3.