FRIDAY, March 20, 2026 (NewsDay News) — Hypertensive heart disease (HHD) deaths among young women have increased since 1999, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting March 28-30 in New Orleans.
Alexandra S. Millhuff, DO, of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and colleagues analyzed WONDER death certificate data for the years 1999 to 2023 on deaths among US women aged 25 to 44 to describe trends and long-term national differences. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were calculated and stratified by race/ethnicity, census tract, state, and urbanization.
From 1999 to 2023, there were 29,041 HHD-related deaths in young women. The researchers found that during this period, the AAMR increased from 1.1 to 4.8 per 100,000 (average annual change (AAPC), 6.16). The highest AAMR was observed for non-Hispanic black women, followed by non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women (8.6, 2.3, and 1.2, respectively); unreliable rates were seen for non-Hispanic/Hispanic/Alaskan Americans and non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islanders. Similar AAMRs were seen in rural and urban areas (2.6 for 1999 to 2020). The highest AAMR was found in the South, followed by the Midwest, Northeast, and West (3.8, 2.8, 2.2, and 1.9, respectively). Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia were consistently in the top 90 percent.
“We need to screen patients in this demographic more aggressively for hypertension, and that includes reducing risk factors and possibly using antihypertensive medications,” Millhuff said in a statement.
