Background: Progress in therapy and the ageing patients hospitalized with heart failure may have impacted the characteristics of this patients.
Aims: We compared epidemiological data of patients admitted with heart failure during two periods separated by a 10 year interval.
Methods: Characteristics of 353 heart failure patients recruited between 2002 and 2004 with those of 304 heart failure patients recruited between 1992 and 1994 were compared retrospectively.
Results: There is now a majority of male patients (56.4%) not found ten years ago. The average age is unchanged (75.1+/-11 then 76.4+/-11 years) even though the proportion of patients aged over 70 years has increased (75% versus 70%). Hospital length of stay has fallen from 14+/-9 to 10+/-7 days. Hospital mortality (8%) are identical. The two main etiologies remain coronary and hypertensive heart disease at 29 and 24% respectively but these proportions are lower than ten years ago (42 and 28% respectively). The ejection fraction is more often preserved (56%) than before (44%). Increased prescription of inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system and beta-blockers is confirmed. Post-hospital and total mortality has fallen by 50 and 30% from 30 to 16% and 35 to 24% respectively at the expense of a 25% increase in the frequency of hospital readmissions from 29 to 38%.
Conclusion: Even if mortality has declined, heart failure remains a major public health burden with a significant number of hospital readmissions. Other approaches such as therapeutic education must therefore be developed.
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