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Survival rates in heart failure not improving

The outlook for patients with heart failure has not improved over a 15-year period, according to research from the United Kingdom recently published in Family Practice.

“Getting an accurate estimate of heart failure prognosis is vital for those who commission health care services, so resources can be allocated appropriately,” Claire J. Taylor, MBE, MA, MPH, PhD, FRCGP, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, said in a press release. “Perhaps more importantly, this allows patients to make more informed choices about treatments and possible end-of-life care.”

According to the press release, heart failure affects approximately 900,000 people in the United Kingdom. The latest CDC data show about 5.7 million adults in the United States are affected, at annual cost of an estimated $30.7 billion in missed days of work, medications to treat the disease and health care services. 

In the current study, Taylor and colleagues analyzed 2,728,841 medical records from The Health Improvement Network (which, according to that network’s website, is a compilation of data from general practices based in the United Kingdom). between Jan. 1, 1998 and Dec. 31, 2012 and found that 54,313 patients aged 45 and older had a first diagnostic code of heart failure (HF) during that time. These patients were matched by criteria such as sex and age to those patients without the condition.

They found that overall survival rates for the heart failure group were 81.3% (95% CI, 80.9-81.6) at 1 year, 51.5% (95% CI, 51-52) at 5 years and 29.5% (95% CI, 28.9-30.2) at 10 years.

“While the survival rates were better than other studies, we disappointingly didn’t see any improvement over time,” Taylor said in the release. “We plan to do more work to examine why this might be the case and find ways to improve the outlook for [these] patients in the future.”

The researchers also noted that survival rate estimates varied based on a person’s age, sex, other health conditions and BP, and that medical professionals should take these factors into consideration when discussing HF with patients. – by Janel Miller

Disclosure: Taylor reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for a full list of the other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.

Reference:

https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_heart_failure.htm (accessed 02-06-17)

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pcph/research-groups-themes/thin-pub/database (accessed 02-08-17)