https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0421-2719
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ABSTRACT
Purpose
Heart failure is prevalent among older people and has a poor prognosis. The aim of this study is to identify potential prognostic, geriatric, and cardiac parameters which could help clinicians identify older heart failure patients at high risk for one-year mortality.
Methods
The multicentre, observational cohort study which included 147 heart failure patients aged ≥75 years, hospitalized in the cardiac or geriatric department in two hospitals. One-year survival was the outcome measure. For univariate analysis Chi-square test and independent sample T-test were used; for multivariate analysis Logistic regression and Cox regression for time-dependent analysis.
Results
One-year mortality was 28% (41/147). One-year survivors and non-survivors did not differ in the following characteristics: age, gender, sodium level at hospital discharge, ejection fraction, NYHA Class, basic and instrumental activities of daily living, and the presence of a geriatric risk profile. There was a significant lower systolic blood pressure at discharge in non-survivors compared to one-year-survivors (mean 125.26 mmHg vs. 137.59 mmHg). Non-survivors had more severe underlying comorbidities according to the age adjusted Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI) (mean 8.80 vs. 7.40).
Both logistic and Cox regression showed a higher risk and rate of mortality with decreasing systolic blood pressure at discharge (OR 0.963, p=0.001 and HR 0.970, p<0.001) and with increasing CCI (OR 1.344, p=0.002 and HR 1.269, p=0.001); the other variables were not significantly related.
Conclusion
Lower blood pressure and more severe comorbidities, but not functionality nor the presence of a geriatric risk profile, are related to one-year mortality in older, in-hospital heart failure patients.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the patients and their families/legal representatives for their participation in our study. Furthermore, we would like to thank Dr. Van de Vyver Celine and Dr. Maes Hanne for the data collection.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).