Youth Heart Failure Surges: Urgent Global Action Needed

Prompt and effective preventive and management policies are needed to curb the worldwide prevalence of heart failure (HF) among children and adolescents aged 0-19, according to a study presented at ESC Heart Failure 2025.

The authors of this analysis sought to analyze epidemiological trends in HF across sex, age, region, and time.

The study data, specifically the number and age-standardized rate (ASR) of prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs), were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. HF trends were determined using a combination of descriptive estimates, correlation analysis, and join point linear regression.

The findings showed that the number of children and adolescent HF patients exceeded 640,000 in 2019. The researchers observed a positive correlation between sociodemographic index (SDI) levels and HF burden, with higher SDI regions showing the greatest impact, especially in the 15–19-year-old group.

Overall, the study showed that children under the age of 10 were the most impacted and presented a more evident increasing trend of HF compared to older children (10-19 years old). When broken down by gender, males had a more severe HF burden than females across most regions, age groups, and underlying diseases. Specifically, congenital birth defects, cardiomyopathy, and myocarditis were the most common etiologies of cardiac dysfunction, the researchers noted.

Source:

Lai ZH, et al. World J Pediatr. 2025;21(1):90-99. doi:10.1007/s12519-024-00868-1