Prognostic value of weight loss in hospitalized patients with heart failure

Weight loss is a poor prognostic factor in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). However, whether the same is true for hospitalized patients with HF is unknown, even though hospitalization is the first opportunity for many patients to be diagnosed with HF. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of weight loss in patients hospitalized for HF.

This was a post-hoc analysis of the FRAGILE-HF study, a prospective multi-center, observational study including 1332 hospitalized older (≥65 years) patients with HF. The primary outcome was all-cause death within two years of discharge. Self-reported body weight data 1 year prior to hospital admission were available for 1106 patients (83.0%) and were compared with their weight after decongestion therapy. The median weight change was -6.9% [-2.4 - -11.9] and 86.8% of the overall cohort experienced some weight loss. Whereas patients with weight loss ≥5%, which is a well-validated cut-off in chronic HF, had comparable mortality to those with less weight loss (P = 0.96 by log-rank test), patients with weight loss >12%, the lowest quartile value, had higher mortality than those with less weight loss (P = 0.024 for all-cause mortality, P = 0.028 for non-cardiovascular mortality, and P = 0.28 for cardiovascular mortality, respectively). In a Cox proportional hazard model, >12% weight loss was associated with high mortality after adjusting for known prognostic factors and history of malignancy (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.485 [1.070-2.062], P = 0.018).

Weight loss derived from patient-reported body weight 1 year before hospitalization was significantly associated with increased mortality after discharge, mainly due to non-cardiovascular etiology, in elderly patients hospitalized for HF.