HF facts:

• Approximately 5 million Americans suffer with HF1
• 400,000 to 700,000 new cases of HF are diagnosed each year1
• Heart failure contributes to about 300,000 deaths a year1
• In addition to lifestyle choices (smoking, diet and exercise), coronary artery disease, hypertension, heart valve or heart muscle disease and congenital conditions, other conditions that can lead to heart failure include diabetes, severe lung disease, severe anemia, hyperthyroidism and arrhythmia or dysrythmia2
• The average length of hospitalization for heart failure is 5.4 days3
• While the overall presence of HF is about the same between men and women, there is some evidence that survival is lower in men than in women4

1 National Institutes of Health: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/heartfailure.html
2 American Heart Association: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=324
3 Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hdasd/sr13_156t9.pdf
4 The Internet Journal of Emergency Medicine™:
http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijem/vol2n1/gender.xml