¹Victor Lambongang, ²Edwin Amachree, ³Chelsea Raviro Mazonde, ⁴Aminat Adebukola Amunigun

¹Department of Public Health, Liberty University. Virginia, USA. ORCID: 0009-0004-8592-6810

²Department of Biology and Chemistry, Liberty University, Virginia, USA.

ORCID: 0009-0008-3597-0484

³Department of Public Health, Liberty University. Virginia, USA.

ORCID: 0009-0001-5124-7746

⁴Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Alabama A&M University. Alabama, USA.

ORCID: 0009-0000-8285-8032

Corresponding Author: Victor Lambongang, Department of Public Health, Liberty University. Virginia, USA.

Citation: Victor Lambongang, Edwin Amachree, Chelsea Raviro Mazonde, Aminat Adebukola Amunigun (2026) Projected Rise of Cardiovascular Disease in US Women by 2050: A Life- Course Analysis of Hypertension, Diabetes and Obesity Trends. Int J Diabetes Case Rep, 2(1);1-8.

Copyrights: © 2026, Victor Lambongang, et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract:

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among women in the United States. Recent forecasting work suggests that the next few decades will bring substantial growth in women’s cardiometabolic risk factor prevalence, with downstream increases in CVD and stroke burden.

Objective: To synthesise the best available evidence on the projected rise of CVD in US women by 2050 using a life-course framework, with specific focus on hypertension, diabetes and obesity trends, and to present a transparent, reproducible projection scaffold with embedded tables and figures aligned to publication expectations for Scopus-indexed journals.

Methods: A population-based projection framework was constructed using (i) women-specific risk factor and CVD projection anchors from an American Heart Association scientific statement forecasting women’s CVD burden through 2050, (ii) baseline life-stage stratified prevalence estimates for women from nationally representative NHANES 2017 to March 2020 prepandemic tables (hypertension, diabetes, obesity), and (iii) official US Census Bureau population estimates (2020) and national population projections (to 2050) to translate prevalence into counts. Intermediate-year estimates (2030, 2040) were generated via logit-scale interpolation between 2020 and 2050 anchors, and age-group projections were generated by applying an anchored logit shift to baseline age-stratified prevalence.

Results: Among adult US women overall, hypertension is projected to rise from 48.6% (2020) to 59.1% (2050), diabetes from 14.9% to 25.3%, and obesity from 43.9% to 61.2%. Total CVD and stroke prevalence is projected to increase from 10.7% to 14.4% by 2050, with increases also projected for coronary disease (6.85% to 9.12%), heart failure (2.45% to 3.95%), stroke (4.14% to 6.52%) and atrial fibrillation (1.58% to 2.44%). Life-stage baseline prevalence in NHANES 2017 to March 2020 already demonstrates steep risk gradients by age (for example, women’s hypertension prevalence 16.9% at 18–39 years versus 75.0% at 60+ years), indicating that population ageing plus worsening risk factor profiles will jointly drive absolute burden.

Conclusion: By 2050, the projected cardiometabolic risk environment for US women is consistent with a substantial rise in both risk factor prevalence and CVD burden, with strong likelihood of widening absolute disparities unless prevention and equitable access improve. A life-course prevention strategy that prioritises early detection and sustained control of hypertension, diabetes and obesity across reproductive, menopausal and older-age transitions is supported by the direction and scale of these projections.

Keywords: Cardiovascular Disease, Women’s Health, Life-Course Analysis, Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesity, Projection Modelling.