A new study reveals that, on average, many Americans have hearts that are aging quickly than their chronological age. The difference is alarming and large.
The study, published in JAMA Cardiology on July 30, 2025, analyzed data from more than 14,000 adults. On average, women’s hearts had the heart age of a person four years older than their chronological age and men’s hearts had the heart age of a person seven years older.
Researchers created the term “risk age.” This framework for discussing heart health compared your heart to an individual with optimal cardiovascular health.
So rather than saying you have a 15% risk of heart disease, doctors could say that your heart behaves like a 70-year-old (if you are 60). This way might help patients make sense of their health risks and take them more seriously.
Income and Education Greatly Impact Heart Age
This study appropriately illustrated how much income and education matter for heart aging. Adults who had only a high school education or less had a significantly older heart age than individuals with a university degree by at least five years, at most ten years.
Income was more impactful than education
Lower income males had a heart aging more than eight years faster than their chronological age. About one in three men in this group had heart ages over ten years older than their age on a birth certificate.
Racial categories or race also appeared to change how fast the hearts aged. Non-Hispanic Black adults had the greatest gap. Black men’s hearts were an average of 8.5 years older than the age on their birth certificate.
Hispanic and Asian adults also had gaps, but Asian women had the smallest heart-cadre age gap of less than three years. These disparities further indicate that, as we have discussed in class, when we consider health outcomes, we have to factor in the various social and economic determinants in addition to estimating choices made by individuals.
The risk age approach can be a better vehicle for messaging around heart disease risk (especially for young adults who feel fairly healthy).
When doctors say, “Your heart is like a 55-year-old’s heart,” rather than, “You have 15% risk,” patients may be more likely to act rapidly.
If people have access, we can help improve lifestyle changes, such as healthful eating practices, regular exercise (although safe physical activity is another matter), and regular health maintenance. The same pathways explored here should probably prompt policy makers to take a hard look at trying to eliminate the health gaps attributable to imbalances in education and income.
The report reminds us that while individual lifestyle factors – such as smoking, eating patterns, and physical activity – are meaningful, the social and economic contributions are larger. The onus of unhealthy decisions and burdensome life changes often lie with those with reduced resources, who experience more stress, poor nutrition and limited health care access /appropriate care.
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Consultants and experts conclude that it will take more than individual change to fix this problem. System-based solutions – access to healthcare (and healthy food), education and sustainable livelihoods – will be a better path to closing the cardiovascular health gap in America.
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