National trends in heart failure hospital stay rates, 2001 to 2009

Abstract

Objectives: This study sought to analyze recent trends over time in heart failure (HF) hospital stay rates, length of stay (LOS), and in-hospital mortality by age groups with a large national dataset of U.S. hospital discharges.

Background: Heart failure hospital stay rates, LOS, and mortality have fallen over the past decade for older Medicare beneficiaries, but whether this holds true for younger adults is unknown.

Methods: From the National Inpatient Sample, we calculated HF hospital stay rates, LOS, and in-hospital mortality from 2001 to 2009 with survey data analysis techniques.

Results: Hospital stays (n = 1,686,089) with a primary discharge diagnosis of HF were identified from National Inpatient Sample data between 2001 and 2009. The overall national hospital stay rate decreased from 633 to 463 hospital stays/100,000 persons, (-26.9%, p-for-trend <0.001). However, statistically significant declines (p < 0.001) were only observed for patients 55 to 64 years of age (-36.5%) 65 to 74 years (-37.4%), and ≥ 75 years (-28.3%) but not for patients 18 to 44 years of age (-12.8%, p = 0.57) or 45 to 55 years (-16.2%, p = 0.04). Statistically significant declines in LOS were only observed for patients 65 years of age and older. Overall in-hospital mortality fell from 4.5% to 3.3%, a relative decline of -27.4%, (p-for-trend <0.001), but patients 18 to 44 years of age did not exhibit a significant decline (-8.1%, p-for-trend = 0.18). In secondary analyses significant declines in HF hospital stay rate over time were observed for white men, white women, and black women but not for black men (-9.5%, p-for-trend = 0.43).

Conclusions: Younger patients have not experienced comparable declines in HF hospital stay, LOS, and in-hospital mortality as older patients. Black men remain a vulnerable population for HF hospital stay.