Variables Associated With Heart Failure Compared for Men and Women

THURSDAY, Aug. 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Asthma, depression, anxiety, and hypothyroidism are associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) among women, according to a study published online Aug. 22 in the Journal of Primary Care and Community Health.

Kristen Yeh, from the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey, and colleagues examined the risk factors associated with heart failure in women versus men in a retrospective medical record review. Variables were compared in men and women with HFpEF and HFrEF.

The study included 460 women and 258 men with HFpEF. The researchers found that women with HFpEF had higher prevalence rates of older age, asthma, osteoarthritis, depression, hypothyroidism, and anxiety compared with men with HFpEF. In women, the odds of HFpEF were greater with increasing age per year, increasing body mass index (BMI), rheumatological disorder, mental health disorder such as depression or anxiety, asthma, and hypothyroidism (odds ratios, 1.043, 1.037, 1.920, 1.898, 1.807, and 1.973, respectively). Data were included for 225 women and 250 men with HFrEF. Compared with men with HFrEF, women with HFrEF had higher prevalence rates of asthma, depression, hypothyroidism, and anxiety. For Black race, the odds of HFrEF were greater in women (odds ratio, 1.455).

“Women with HFpEF had higher prevalence of old age, elevated BMI, asthma, osteoarthritis, depression, anxiety, and hypothyroidism; while women with HFrEF had higher prevalence of Black race, asthma, depression, anxiety, and hypothyroidism,” the authors write.

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