Long-Term Trends in the Incidence of Heart Failure After Myocardial Infarction

<jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Background—</jats:italic> </jats:bold> Although mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) has declined in the United States in recent decades, there have been few community-based investigations of the long-term trends in the incidence of heart failure after MI, and their results appear to be conflicting. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Methods and Results—</jats:italic> </jats:bold> We evaluated 676 Framingham Heart Study participants between 45 and 85 years of age (mean age 67 years, 34% women) who developed a first MI between 1970 and 1999. We assessed the incidence rates of heart failure and of death without heart failure in each of 3 decades (1970 to 1979, 1980 to 1989, and 1990 to 1999). We estimated the multivariable-adjusted risk of events in the latter 2 decades, with the period 1970 to 1979 serving as the referent. The 30-day incidence of heart failure after MI rose from 10% in 1970 to 1979 to 23.1% in 1990 to 1999 ( <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> for trend 0.003), whereas 30-day mortality after MI declined from 12.2% (1970 to 1979) to 4.1% (1990 to 1999). The 5-year incidence of heart failure after MI rose from 27.6% in 1970 to 1979 to 31.9% in 1990 to 1999 ( <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> for trend 0.02), whereas 5-year mortality after MI declined from 41.1% (1970 to 1979) to 17.3% (1990 to 1999). In multivariable analyses, compared with the period 1970 to 1979, we observed higher 30-day (risk ratio 2.05, 95% confidence interval 1.25 to 3.36) and 5-year (risk ratio 1.74, 95% confidence interval 1.07 to 2.84) risks of heart failure in the decade 1990 to 1999. These trends were accompanied by lower 30-day (risk ratio 0.21, 95% confidence interval 0.09 to 0.47) and 5-year (risk ratio 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.18 to 0.54) mortality rates in 1990 to 1999. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:bold> <jats:italic>Conclusions—</jats:italic> </jats:bold> In the present community-based sample, we observed an increase in the incidence of heart failure in recent decades that paralleled the decrease in mortality after MI. </jats:p>