Nursing Home Admission Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study

Loss of autonomy associated with nursing home admission (NHA) is a concern for patients. Yet the incidence of NHA after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is unknown.

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and factors associated with NHA following TAVR compared with the general population.

Through Danish registries, patients alive at discharge after TAVR were identified from January 2014 to October 2021. Patients were matched 1:5 on sex, age, and calendar year to the general population. The 3-year cumulative incidence and 95% CI of NHA were estimated using the Aalen-Johansen estimator, accounting for the competing risk for death. Through multivariate cause-specific Cox regression models, factors associated with NHA were examined.

In total, 5,312 TAVR patients were matched to 26,560 control subjects with a median age of 81 years and 56.1% males. Comorbidity burden was higher for TAVR patients. The 3-year cumulative incidence of NHA was 6.3% (95% CI: 5.5%-7.1%) for TAVR patients compared with 5.8% (95% CI: 5.4%-6.1%) for the general population. For TAVR patients >85 years of age, the cumulative incidence of NHA was 11.6% (95% CI: 9.5%-13.8%), and the risk for death was 23.3% (95% CI: 20.4%-26.2%). Factors associated with NHA were increasing age, frailty, living alone, and atrial fibrillation.

TAVR was not associated with an increased incidence of NHA compared with the general population. Despite the increased incidence of NHA for TAVR patients >85 years of age, approximately 2 in 3 patients were still alive and not admitted to nursing homes 3 years after TAVR.