Rehospitalisation risk by hypnotics class in older patients with heart failure: a cohort study utilizing administrative claims data in Japan.

Background: Studies comparing the safety of orexin receptor antagonists and other hypnotic types for older patients with heart failure (HF) remain lacking. This study aimed to compare orexin receptor antagonists (suvorexant) with benzodiazepines or Z-drugs for sleep treatment and investigate the risk of acute HF-related rehospitalisation in older patients with HF.

Methods: This study used a cohort design to analyse data from an administrative claims database from April 2008 to December 2020. The study population was determined based on inclusion and exclusion criteria from a cohort of 1 159 937 patients aged ≥65 years, selected through random sampling. The follow-up period was censored based on multiple criteria, including outcome occurrences and hypnotic classification changes. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were conducted for risk assessment.

Results: The analysis included 1858 patients, aged ≥65 years and experiencing their first HF-related hospitalisation. These patients were categorised based on the initially prescribed hypnotic classification, including suvorexant, benzodiazepines and Z-drugs in 490, 606 and 762 patients, respectively. The average age and SD were similar across all hypnotic classes at 82.7±7.6 years. Kaplan-Meier curves indicated a higher trend of rehospitalisation risk for benzodiazepines and Z-drugs than for suvorexant. The adjusted HRs were 2.77 (95% CI 1.17 to 6.52) for benzodiazepines and 2.98 (95% CI 1.33 to 6.68) for Z-drugs.

Conclusions: Suvorexant administration for sleep treatment in older patients with HF shows a potentially reduced risk of acute HF-related rehospitalisation compared with benzodiazepines and Z-drugs. The results of this study provide valuable information for selecting hypnotics in older patients with HF having concurrent sleep disorders.