2004-7-27
This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health
Report.
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart cannot pump as
much blood as the body needs. This condition can begin with a heart
attack or high blood pressure. The heart becomes weakened. Over
time, it loses the ability to pump blood. A sign of heart failure is
breathing difficulty. But people often mistake that for just a sign
of aging.
In the United States, doctors say about five million people have
this major cause of sickness and death. They say heart failure is
the leading cause of hospital treatment for people age sixty-five
and older. But these doctors say the problem of heart failure has
yet to be fully investigated.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota did a study of the
last twenty years. They expected to find that heart failure has
become more common. Hospital admissions for heart failure have
increased. But they found that the percentage of the population
developing heart failure has not changed. Instead, survival rates
have improved.
People with the condition are living longer today than they were
twenty years ago. But this means they are also living longer with
the effects of the disease. So, they are being admitted to the
hospital many more times than people in the past with heart failure.
The Journal of the American Medical Association published the
findings. Doctor Veronique Roger [ro-ZHAY] led the study of about
four-thousand-five-hundred people.
These patients all first learned they had heart failure between
nineteen-seventy-nine and two-thousand. The study found that the
chances a person would still be alive after five years improved
during that period. The doctors say the gains were mainly among men
and younger people.
They say there has been some progress against heart failure. More
lives are being saved. But they say more work needs to be done to
improve survival.
Doctor Roger notes that men remain at higher risk for heart
failure at a younger age than women. And both men and women still
have about a fifty percent chance of dying from heart failure within
five years of discovery. The doctor says better ways are also needed
to treat long-term effects like breathing difficulty. That way
patients could remain at home and avoid repeated visits to the
hospital.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia
Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.