While hospitalization rates for stroke and coronary artery disease have fallen since the mid-1980s, hospitalization rates for heart failure have continued to climb. In fact, the number of people 65 or older who are hospitalized for heart failure more than doubled in the past 27 years. The number is likely to keep climbing.

The number of patients 65 and older who were hospitalized for heart failure increased an astounding 131 percent to 807,082 in 2006, up from only 348,866 in 1980.

An estimated 5.3 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a chronic disease in which the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood efficiently, leaving organs starved for oxygen. Risk factors for the illness include high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, obesity, smoking, lack of exercise and a diet rich in fatty foods.