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Self-rated health and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure

Jerneja Farkas1, Samantha Nabb, Lijana Zaletel-Kragelj

  • 1Chair of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

European Journal of Heart Failure
|March 31, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Self-rated health (SRH) in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients predicts mortality. Poor SRH indicates a higher risk, offering valuable prognostic insight beyond clinical assessments.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Public Health
  • Geriatrics

Background:

  • Limited data exists on self-rated health (SRH) in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients.
  • Understanding SRH distribution and its prognostic value is crucial for patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distribution of SRH in stable CHF patients.
  • To determine if SRH is associated with mortality in this population.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective study of 100 stable CHF patients with a 48-month follow-up.
  • SRH assessed using a seven-grade descriptive scale.
  • Mortality analyzed using Cox proportional hazard models.

Main Results:

  • Median SRH was 'quite poor'; 'average' was the most frequent rating.
  • 58% of patients died during follow-up.
  • Poorer SRH ratings (quite poor or worse) were associated with significantly higher mortality (70% vs. 43%, P=0.008).
  • SRH independently predicted mortality, even after adjusting for clinical factors and biomarkers (HRs 1.39-2.13).

Conclusions:

  • Self-rated health is an independent predictor of mortality in stable CHF patients.
  • SRH provides prognostic information beyond traditional clinical evaluations.
  • SRH can be a valuable tool in routine clinical practice for assessing patient risk.
Abstract

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