Risk Factors for All-Cause Mortality in Patients Diagnosed with Advanced Heart Failure: A Scoping Review

Identifying the evolving needs of patients with advanced heart failure (AdHF) and triaging those at high risk of death can facilitate timely referrals to palliative care and advance patient-centered individualized care. There are limited models specific for patients with end-stage HF. We aim to identify risk factors associated with up to three-year all-cause mortality (ACM) and describe prognostic models developed or validated in AdHF populations. Frameworks proposed by Arksey, O'Malley, and Levac were adopted for this scoping review. We searched the Medline, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane library, Web of Science and gray literature databases for articles published between January 2010 and September 2020. Primary studies that included adults aged ≥ 18 years, diagnosed with AdHF defined as New York Heart Association class III/IV, American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Stage D, end-stage HF, and assessed for risk factors associated with up to three-year ACM using multivariate analysis were included. Studies were appraised using the Quality of Prognostic Studies tool. Data were analyzed using a narrative synthesis approach. We reviewed 167 risk factors that were associated with up to three-year ACM and prognostic models specific to AdHF patients across 65 articles with low-to-moderate bias. Studies were mostly based in Western and/or European cohorts (n = 60), in the acute care setting (n = 56), and derived from clinical trials (n = 40). Risk factors were grouped into six domains. Variables related to cardiovascular and overall health were frequently assessed. Ten prognostic models developed/validated on AdHF patients displayed acceptable model performance [area under the curve (AUC) range: 0.71-0.81]. Among the ten models, the model for end-stage-liver disease (MELD-XI) and acute decompensated HF with N-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (ADHF/proBNP) model attained the highest discriminatory performance against short-term ACM (AUC: 0.81). To enable timely referrals to palliative care interventions, further research is required to develop or validate prognostic models that consider the evolving landscape of AdHF management.