Despite significant advances in medical and surgical treatments for heart failure in the past decade, premature deaths caused by heart failure are on the rise in the US, especially among younger adults, says a study.

Death rates due to heart failure have been increasing since 2012, said the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "The success of the last three decades in improving heart failure death rates is now being reversed, and it is likely due to the obesity and diabetes epidemics," said Sadiya Khan, Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the US.

"We focused on patients with heart failure because they have the highest mortality related to cardiovascular death," she said. An estimated six million adults in the US have heart failure which is the number one reason older adults are admitted to the hospital, Khan said.

For the study, researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research, which includes the underlying and contributing cause of death from all death certificates in the US between 1999 to 2017 for 47,728,569 individuals.

Simply put, heart failure is when the heart muscle doesn't function properly in its squeezing or relaxing functions. "To combat this disturbing trend, we need to focus on improving the control of risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes," said Khan.

"Healthy lifestyle changes promoting a normal body mass index also can protect from developing heart failure as well as engaging in regular physical activity and consuming a healthy, well-balanced diet," she added.