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February 25, 2026<\/p>\n
4 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Heart disease in young women projected to rise sharply by 2050<\/p>\n A new projection study estimates that nearly a third of women aged 22 to 44 will have been diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease by 2050<\/p>\n By Lauren J. Young edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n KATERYNA KON\/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Heart disease is the top cause of death for women in the U.S.; it kills more of them than all forms of cancer combined. But the unique signs and symptoms of heart disease in women are more likely go undetected and untreated than those in men.<\/p>\n The dangers heart disease poses to women may be about to get worse, according to a new analysis. Based on national data between 2010 to 2020, researchers project that, by 2050, the prevalence of serious cardiovascular disease and stroke in women in the U.S. will rise from 10.7 percent to 14.4 percent\u2014affecting more than 22 million people. And that\u2019s not counting high blood pressure.<\/p>\n The study, published today in Circulation, also shows an alarming uptick of disease in younger women: nearly a third of all women between age 22 and 44 will be diagnosed with some form of cardiovascular disease by 2050.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The projection is \u201creally a wake-up call,\u201d says Karen Joynt Maddox, lead author of the study and a cardiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. She is also vice chair of the Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research at the American Heart Association, which publishes these forecasts every year.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite all of our amazing advances in treating cardiovascular disease, we have not made many advances in preventing the disease. And in fact, the projections would suggest that we\u2019re doing worse and worse in preventing the cardiovascular risk factors,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The estimates represent a setback in the fight against cardiovascular disease, says C. Noel Bairey Merz, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had this idea that maybe by the end of this century, cardiovascular disease would be a rare condition,\u201d Bairey Merz says. \u201cUp until 2010, we had gotten cardiovascular disease down to one in four women, and now we\u2019re back to one in three. It\u2019s a sad reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Hypertension\u2014a form of high blood pressure that is an early risk factor of heart disease\u2014could spike, according to the projections. Nearly 60 percent of women will have high blood pressure by 2050\u2014up from 50 percent in 2020. And the rates of numerous cardiovascular conditions, such as coronary disease, heart failure, stroke and atrial fibrillation could all rise slightly, according to the study. By 2050, the prevalence of diabetes could increase by 10 percent, while that of obesity may increase by about 17 percent. Similar trends were observed in girls aged two to 19, with obesity predicted to increase from 19.6 percent to 32 percent by 2050.<\/p>\n \u201cCardiovascular disease is a life course disease. We can see risk factors start in childhood,\u201d Joynt Maddox says. \u201cI worry a lot about the increases that we\u2019re projecting in young people, about setting people up for having heart problems when they\u2019re in their 30s and 40s and 50s instead of their 60s and 70s and 80s.\u201d<\/p>\n Older women have a higher prevalence of disease, but cardiovascular risk factors are high and rising in younger groups. Those two trends could feed each other in a vicious cycle, Joynt Maddox explains. As women age, they might experience greater rates of cardiovascular disease associated with a prior heart or metabolic issue. People with a past history of stroke and heart attacks are more likely to die from heart failure years later.<\/p>\n Similar trends could be seen in men, Joynt Maddox says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that women are uniquely experiencing the increase in obesity or high blood pressure, but there are additional layers on top of that,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Part of the reason why women may be at particular risk could relate to the significant hormonal changes they experience throughout life, including during menstruation, pregnancy and menopause, Joynt Maddox says. Determining how these life events affect heart health will require more research, but these are \u201cissues that we can definitely build upon,\u201d Bairey Merz says.<\/p>\n Socioeconomic and demographic factors also affect outcomes. For example, Black women have the highest incidence of high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, which are all cardiovascular disease risk factors, and this is expected to still be the case in 2050. They could also see the greatest jumps in heart failure and stroke, according to the new predictions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe double whammy is these intersectionalities\u2014you\u2019re Black or brown, and you live in a rural or underserved area, and you have absolutely no access to health care or insurance,\u201d Bairey Merz says.<\/p>\n These racial health disparities are well documented, but the new forecast underscores the need for better prevention measures and health care policies, Joynt Maddox says. New glucagonlike peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs, for example, could help mitigate rates of cardiovascular disease and obesity. How much GLP-1 drugs will do this \u201cis an enormous unanswered question,\u201d says Joynt Maddox, adding that the data the projections are based on do not fully overlap with the rise in GLP-1 drugs. \u201cBut I\u2019m optimistic that it\u2019s going to be part of helping us bend the curve.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 25, 2026 4 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Heart disease in young women projected to rise sharply by 2050 A new projection study estimates that nearly a third of women aged 22 to 44 will have been diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease by 2050 By Lauren J. Young edited by Claire Cameron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[4391,3411,14555,313,20976,418,801],"class_list":{"0":"post-45281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-disease","9":"tag-heart","10":"tag-projected","11":"tag-rise","12":"tag-sharply","13":"tag-women","14":"tag-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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