ACC: Hypertensive Heart Disease Mortality Increasing in Young Women

FRIDAY, March 20, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Since 1999, there has been an increase in hypertensive heart disease (HHD) mortality among young women, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 28 to 30 in New Orleans.Alexandra C. Millhuff, D.O., from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and colleagues analyzed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention WONDER death certificate data for 1999 to 2023 for HHD-related deaths among U.S. women aged 25 to 44 years to describe long-term nationwide trends and disparities. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were calculated and stratified by race/ethnicity, census region, state, and urbanization.There were 29,041 HHD-related deaths in young women from 1999 to 2023. The researchers found that during this time period, there was an increase in AAMR from 1.1 to 4.8 per 100,000 (average annual percent change [AAPC], 6.16). The highest AAMR was seen for non-Hispanic Black women, followed by non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women (8.6, 2.3, and 1.2, respectively); unreliable rates were seen for non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives and non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islanders. Similar AAMRs were seen in rural and urban areas (2.6 for 1999 to 2020). The highest AAMR was seen in the South, followed by the Midwest, Northeast, and West (3.8, 2.8, 2.2, and 1.9, respectively). Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and West Virginia were consistently in the top 90th percentile."We need to be screening patients of this demographic for hypertension more aggressively, and that includes mitigating risk factors and possibly using antihypertensive medications," Millhuff said in a statement.Press ReleaseMore Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

ACC: Hypertensive Heart Disease Mortality Increasing in Young Women

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