Association between anxiety and mortality in patients with congestive heart failure after implantation of cardiac electronic devices.

Objective: Several studies suggest that psychological factors including anxiety are associated with negative outcomes and in particular higher mortality rates among heart failure (HF) patients. However, the impact of anxiety on mortality in patients with implanted cardiac devices has not been fully appreciated. The aim of this study was to assess the association between state (SA) and trait (TA) anxiety and all-cause mortality in patients with HF after cardiac electronic devices implantation.

Methods: The monocentric prospective study enrolled 265 patients (215 men and 50 women) aged 23 to 84 years (mean age 57.1 ± 10.0), who received cardiac resynchronization therapy or cardioverter-defibrillator implantation. Mean duration of prospective follow-up was 62.3 ± 36.6 months. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to measure anxiety symptoms. Cox proportional hazards multivariate regression model was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality with 95% confidence interval (95% CI).

Results: During the prospective follow-up period, 45 (17.0%) patients died due to all causes. According to quantitative analysis, HR for death used for SA scale was 1.04 (95% CI 1.00-1.07, p = 0.07) and for the TA scale 1.02 (95% CI 0.99-1.05, p = 0.21). Analysis of categorical indicators found statistically significant higher HR of mortality in patients with severe SA (2.35, 95% CI 1.17-4.71, p = 0.02), and TA (2.02, 95% CI 1.04-3.94, p = 0.04).

Conclusion: High levels of SA and TA was significantly and independently associated with a high risk of all-cause mortality in patients, who underwent implantation of cardiac electronic devices.