NIH Study Finds Infection-Related Hospitalizations Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Failure

Press release

Tuesday February 11, 2025

Read moreNew advance in the fight against hepatitis E

The results highlight the importance of infection prevention measures and personalized care in heart failure.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that adults hospitalized with a serious infection, such as respiratory infections or sepsis, were more than twice as likely to develop heart failure years later. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, stress the importance of measures that help prevent serious infections, such as keeping vaccines up to date and practicing safe hygiene.

Read moreBreath, master of cerebral emotions

“These are results that demand that we sit up and take notice,” said Sean Coady, MA, deputy branch chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “While there is already a reasonable body of evidence linking prior infections to heart attack, this study focuses on heart failure, which has been less studied but affects about six million Americans.”

The study, part of the NHLBI-funded Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, followed 14,468 adults aged 45 to 64 for up to 31 years, from 1987 to 2018. None had heart failure at the start of the study. The researchers found that people who had an infection-related hospitalization had a 2.35-fold increased risk of developing heart failure within an average of seven years after surviving the hospitalization, compared with those who did not have an infection. The researchers adjusted for sociodemographic and health-related factors and included different types of infections, such as respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, and hospital-acquired infections in their assessment. They found that the association with heart failure was consistent regardless of the type of infection.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the body’s organs and tissues. While there are many different types, the study focused primarily on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which occurs when the left side of the heart is too stiff to relax completely between heartbeats, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), which occurs when the left ventricle is too weak to pump enough blood to the body. The researchers found that infections requiring hospitalization were associated with an increased risk of both conditions. Notably, the risk was nearly three times higher for HFpEF, the most common form of heart failure in people over age 65 and the one with the most limited treatment options. Nearly half of the participants experienced an infection-related hospitalization, highlighting the potentially significant impact of serious infections on older adults’ heart health.

Although the study found only an association between serious infections and heart failure — not a cause-and-effect relationship — Ryan Demmer, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and lead author of the study, said patients should still consider common-sense approaches that keep serious infections at bay. He explained that a person who has an infection and is at high risk for cardiovascular disease should talk to their primary care physician to make sure they are receiving medical therapies that are consistent with guidelines for cardiovascular disease.

Demmer said future research could build on the current findings by validating a cause-and-effect link between infections and the development of heart failure. New research could also explore the possibility of incorporating infection history into heart failure risk assessments and patient management strategies.

About the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI): The NHLBI is the world leader in conducting and supporting research on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders that advances scientific knowledge, improves public health and saves lives. For more information, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, comprises 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and studies the causes, treatments, and cures for common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Transforming Discovery into Health^®

###