Time Well Spent: Clinical Predictors of Days Alive and Out of the Hospital After Heart Transplantation

Days alive and out of the hospital (DAOH) is an increasingly used patient-centered outcome in studies of patients with heart failure, but has not been well studied in heart transplantation (HT). We sought to examine predictors of DAOH at 1-year post-discharge from HT in a diverse population at a large volume HT center.

Adult recipients who underwent HT between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2022 at our institution were included. Baseline demographics were collected as well as psychosocial factors including primary insurance, education, primary language, and socioeconomic status (SES) index as determined by the American Community Survey using patient zip code data. The primary outcome was DAOH at 1 year from HT, accounting for hospital readmissions and time spent in rehabilitation facilities. For patients who died on index admission, DAOH was considered 0.

A total of 1141 patients (26% female, 16% Hispanic, 24% Black) were included in the primary analysis. Seventy-two patients (6.3%) died during the index HT hospitalization. Mean DAOH was 306 (± 87) days. Among those who survived to hospital discharge, 56% were readmitted at least once in the first year after HT. After adjustment for clinical and psychosocial variables, older age, chronic kidney disease, post-2018 allocation change, and greater length of stay at the index hospitalization were associated with significantly fewer DAOH.

The integration of patient-centered metrics such as DAOH should be a continued priority in our transplant community as it may better convey health-related quality of life.