Impact of heart failure | Keep It Pumping

Heart failure - Key facts and figures

Our hearts beat 100,000 times a day pumping oxygen-rich blood around our bodies – that’s two and a half billion beats by the time we’re 70¹!

For people living with heart failure, the heart muscle becomes stiff or weak meaning the heart is unable to pump enough blood around the body². Over 26 million people have heart failure worldwide³. By 2030, that number will increase by nearly 50% (46%)⁴. This partly linked to advances in medicines that result in people living longer, especially after other cardiac conditions like a heart attack⁵.

1 in 5 people over the age of 40 will develop heart failure in their lifetime⁶. In Europe, 3.5million people are diagnosed every year– that’s the same as 400 cases every hour or 7 cases every minute⁷. Heart failure is the most common cause of hospitalization in people over 65 years old⁸ and costs the world economy $108 billion a year⁹.

Improved awareness can make a difference. Early diagnosis, effective treatment and improved lifestyles can help those with heart failure to live longer and healthier lives¹⁰. This is because heart failure is a progressive disease; where symptoms may start out having very little effect on a person’s life, but they can become more impactful¹¹. Making sure you are improving your lifestyle and speaking to your doctor about the most effective treatments as early as possible will help to slow symptom worsening. Currently, only 3% of people can identify heart failure from a description of its symptoms¹²… It’s time to change that. Find a full list of sign and symptoms of heart failure here.

Get the facts

Heart failure affects millions of people worldwide. Take a look at the facts and figures below. Find out just how big of an impact this disease has.

Every year, more than 3.5 million people are diagnosed with HF in Europe. This equates to over 400 cases every hour or

1 in 5

people over the age of 40 will develop heart failure in their lifetime*

7 cases

in the 60 seconds it takes to read this infographic*

2 to 3

times as many deaths from heart failure cause as advanced cancers like bowel and breast cancer*

*Reference: Heart failure in numbers. Novartis Pharma AG. Sep 2015. Code: GLCM/LCZ/0063.

Next up: Signs and symptoms of heart failure >

Life with heart failure

Watch videos of people managing life with heart failure. Read about lifestyle, diet, exercise, and more.

Tools & resources

Whether you are a patient, a carer, or a supporter, Keep It Pumping has resources for you.

Symptom checker

Use our symptom checker tool to help you to evaluate and discuss your heart failure symptoms with your doctor.

1) NHS Choices. Heart failure. Available here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heart-failure/. Last accessed January 2020.
2) Savarese G, Lund LH. Global Public Health Burden of Heart Failure. Cardiac Failure Review. 2017;3 (1):7-11. Available here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5494150/
3) Heidenreich PA, Albert NM, Allen LA, et al,. Forecasting the Impact of Heart Failure in the United States: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation Heart failure. 2013;6(3):606-619. Available here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3908895/
4) Zannad F. Rising incidence of heart failure demands action. The Lancet. 2017; 391 (10120): 518-519. Available here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32873-8/fulltext#articleInformation
5) America Heart Association (AHA). Understand your risk for heart failure. Available at: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-failure/causes-and-risks-for-heart-failure/understand-your-risk-for-heart-failure.Last accessed January 2020.
6) Lόpez-Sendόn. Heart failure today: a paradigm shift. Medicographia. 2011; 33 (4): 363-369. Available at: https://www.medicographia.com/wp-content/pdf/Medicographia109.pdf. Last accessed January 2020.
7) Azad N, Lemay G. Management of chronic heart failure in the older population. Journal of Geriatric Cardiology: JGC. 2014;11(4):329-337. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4292097/. Last accessed January 2020.
8) Cook C, Cole G, Asaria P et al,. The annual global economic burden of heart failure. International Journal of Cardiology. 2014; 171 (3): 368-376. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527313022389.Last accessed January 2020.
9) British Heart Foundation (BHF). Heart failure. Available here: https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/heart-failure. Last accessed January 2020.
10) American Heart Association (AHA). Advanced Heart Failure. Available at: http://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-failure/living-with-heart-failure-and-managing-advanced-hf/advanced-heart-failure.Last accessed January 2020.
11) Remme W, McMurray J, Rauch B et al,. Public awareness of heart failure in Europe: first results from SHAPE. European Society of Cardiology. 2005; 26: 2413-2421. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16135524.Last accessed January 2020.

What are the symptoms of heart failure?

Learn more with our online symptom checker

SYMPTOM CHECKER

Don’t fail your heart