Increased risk for heart failure

Could be many things that are doing it...

Prednisone, other medications, active inflammation, stress, and so fourth.

My money is on a combination of all those things. Pred alone has the potential to wreck havoc on the heart and cause various metabolic issues, including high blood pressure and type-2 diabetes.

From the NIH:

The leading causes of heart failure are diseases that damage the heart. Examples include coronary heart disease (CHD), high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Still not too pleased about it. Even then, heart disease is the number one killer here in the US. It's likely that so many people will succumb to it anyways, IBD or not.

From the CDC:

about 600,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2009 were in men.

There are a lot of people with UC that hate modern medicine completely so it doesn't surprise me. Probably refused to see a cardiologist or take statins. Think warnings against consuming animal fat is a government conspiracy.

Lesson from this study is get yourself into total remmision and stay there if at all possible. Your risk of heart failure will drop from a 270% increase down to 37%. Inflammation is bad.