Changes in characteristics of hospitalized heart failure patients in ten years: a single-center study

Progress in therapy and the ageing patients hospitalized with heart failure may have impacted the characteristics of this patients.

We compared epidemiological data of patients admitted with heart failure during two periods separated by a 10 year interval.

Characteristics of 353 heart failure patients recruited between 2002 and 2004 with those of 304 heart failure patients recruited between 1992 and 1994 were compared retrospectively.

There is now a majority of male patients (56.4%) not found ten years ago. The average age is unchanged (75.1+/-11 then 76.4+/-11 years) even though the proportion of patients aged over 70 years has increased (75% versus 70%). Hospital length of stay has fallen from 14+/-9 to 10+/-7 days. Hospital mortality (8%) are identical. The two main etiologies remain coronary and hypertensive heart disease at 29 and 24% respectively but these proportions are lower than ten years ago (42 and 28% respectively). The ejection fraction is more often preserved (56%) than before (44%). Increased prescription of inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system and beta-blockers is confirmed. Post-hospital and total mortality has fallen by 50 and 30% from 30 to 16% and 35 to 24% respectively at the expense of a 25% increase in the frequency of hospital readmissions from 29 to 38%.

Even if mortality has declined, heart failure remains a major public health burden with a significant number of hospital readmissions. Other approaches such as therapeutic education must therefore be developed.