Abstract P272: Association of Depression and Handgrip Strength With Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure: A Secondary Analysis From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Introduction: Depression is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). Handgrip strength (HGS) is a measure of sarcopenia and lower HGS has been associated with adverse HF outcomes. We hypothesized that relationships between HGS and morbidity and mortality would be moderated by depression in HF patients. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of patients hospitalized with HF categorized by depression status. We calculated HGS adjusted for body weight and categorized the values into tertiles, from lowest to highest. We fitted Cox proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) comparing HGS tertiles in relation to 5-year mortality and 1-year readmissions among depressed and non-depressed and tested whether relationships differ by depression status. Models included HGS tertile, depression status, tertile-by-depression interaction, age, sex, race, medical comorbidities, educational attainment, employment, and HF severity. Results: A total of 494 patients were included in the analysis (mean age 63.4 ± 13.4 years, 44% female, 26% non-white race). A total of 83% of patients had depression and the mean LVEF (SD) was 27.8% (9.2). At 12-months following the index hospitalization the readmission rate was 56% (275 of 494), and the 5-year mortality rate was 41% (204 of 494). Individuals with higher HGS (tertile 2) were less likely to be readmitted compared to tertile 1 (46% vs. 63%; P=0.013). Depression status significantly moderated the relationship between HGS and readmission such that strong handgrip strength predicted readmission among depressed (adjusted HR of 0.35 (95% CI; 0.16, 0.81) comparing tertile 2 to tertile 1) but not among non-depressed patients (0.77 (0.55, 1.06)). However, the HGS-mortality relationship was not moderated by depression. Conclusion: HGS is a predictor of hospital readmission among HFrEF patients, and depression is a moderator of the HGS-readmission relationship. We recommend routinely assessing hospitalized HFrEF patients’ HGS and mood symptoms prior to discharge home, and further research is needed to assess the effects of depression on sarcopenia in its relation to clinical outcomes in HF patients.