Outcomes are improving among older heart failure (HF) patients, according to a new study in Circulation: Heart Failure. In addition, healthcare costs associated with HF also appear to be on the decline.
These findings are notable, researchers noted, because there has been an increase in cardiometabolic comorbidities among hospitalized HF patients over the last 15 years.
The study included data from 6,034,951 weighted HF hospitalizations for older adults from January 2004 to December 2018. All patients were 80 years old or older. Sixty-percent of the patients were women, and the mean age was 86 years old.
All data came from the National Inpatient Sample.
From 2004 to 2014, HF related hospitalizations declined from 4,211 per 100,000 U.S. older adults to 3,089 per 100,000 U.S. older adults. In 2018, the rate was 3,388 per 100,000 U.S. older adults.
In addition, while the overall inpatient mortality rate was 4.7%, it dropped from 6.1% in 2004 to 3.6% in 2018.
There were also notable decreases in adjusted mean length of stay (from 6.0 days in 2004 to 4.7 days in 2018) and adjusted inflation-adjusted care costs (from $11,865 in 2004 to $9,677 in 2018) among these patients.
“Our study demonstrated that inpatient mortality for primary HF admissions among older adults has decreased over time,” wrote lead author Abdul Mannan Khan Minhas, MD, with the department of medicine at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and colleagues. “This decline was consistent across gender and racial/ethnic subgroups. This is consistent with prior NIS based studies.”
Minhas et al., noted that the development of guideline-directed therapies seems to have a favorable effect on inpatient mortality of HF.
“However, public and health care stakeholders should continue the efforts to reduce the comorbidity burden and recurrent hospitalization rates in older adults,” they added.
Read the full study here.