Background: There is growing interest to disentangle worsening heart failure (WHF) from location of care and move away from hospitalization as a surrogate for acuity.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe the incidence of WHF events across the care continuum from ambulatory encounters to hospitalizations.
Methods: We studied calendar year cohorts of adults with diagnosed heart failure (HF) from 2010-2019 within a large, integrated health care delivery system.
Importance: The current understanding of epidemiological mechanisms and temporal trends in hospitalizations for worsening heart failure (WHF) is based on claims and national reporting databases. However, these data sources are inherently limited by the accuracy and completeness of diagnostic coding and/or voluntary reporting.
Objective: To assess the overall burden of and temporal trends in the rate of hospitalizations for WHF.
Importance: QT-prolonging medications (QTPMs) are a reported risk factor for sudden cardiac death (SCD) when defined by consensus criteria that presume an arrhythmic cause. The effect of QTPM on autopsy-defined sudden arrhythmic death (SAD) is unknown.
Objective: To evaluate the association between QTPM and autopsy-defined SAD vs nonarrhythmic cause of sudden death.