Background: Despite new therapies, the prevalence of heart failure continues to escalate. The prevalence of diabetes, a risk factor for heart failure, also continues to rise. To further understand the increasing prevalence of heart failure, we compared trends in the prevalence of diabetes among individuals with diagnosed heart failure versus those in the general population.
Methods: Fourteen randomized trials between 1989 and 1999 including subjects with heart failure (n = 34,633) were reviewed. For each trial, the enrollment date was used to estimate the yearly prevalence of diabetes among study participants with heart failure. The prevalence of diabetes in the general population was estimated based on United State's Center for Disease Control statistics from 1989 to 1999. The prevalence of diabetes between heart failure subjects and the general population was compared using a two-sample t-test for independent samples with unequal variances.
Results: The prevalence of diabetes increased from 2.6% to 4.0% from 1989 to 1999 in the general U.S. population. Among patients with heart failure, the prevalence of diabetes increased from 13% to 47%. Diabetes prevalence estimates varied significantly (p < 0.001) between the general population and individuals with heart failure during the study period.
Conclusions: The rising prevalence of diabetes may partially explain the growing epidemic of heart failure. Increased efforts targeting diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors are warranted in attenuating the rising prevalence of heart failure.