Uijl A, et al. - Researchers analyzed electronic health records data for a large population-based cohort of 871,687 individuals 55 years or older and free of heart failure (HF) at baseline to identify risk factors for developing HF and to compare these risk factors between men and women across different age groups using Cox proportional hazards analysis. The first record of HF from primary or secondary care was the primary endpoint. Median follow-up was 5.8 years, during which 47,987 incident HF cases were documented. Factors that were found to be related to HF included age, social deprivation, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, body mass index, hemoglobin, total white blood cell count and creatinine. Women vs men exhibited stronger associations of smoking, atrial fibrillation and diabetes with incident HF. Findings in this large population-based cohort across age and sex subgroups emphasized the importance of preventive strategies targeting such risk factors for HF.