Mortality and Readmission Rates After Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Abstract

ObjectiveThe current work aimed to examine the rates of and risk factors for mortality and readmission after heart failure (HF).SettingA systematic search was carried out in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and EMBASE to identify eligible reports. The random-effects model was utilized to evaluate the pooled results.ParticipantsA total of 27 studies with 515,238 participants were finally meta-analysed. The HF patients had an average age of 76.3 years, with 51% of the sample being male, in the pooled analysis.Primary and Secondary Outcome MeasuresThe outcome measures were 30-day and 1-year readmission rates, mortality, and risk factors for readmission and mortality.ResultsThe effect sizes for readmission and mortality were estimated as the mean and 95% confidence interval (CI). The estimated 30-day and 1-year all-cause readmission rates were 0.19 (95% CI 0.14–0.23) and 0.53 (95% CI 0.46–0.59), respectively, while the all-cause mortality rates were 0.14 (95% CI 0.10–0.18) and 0.29 (95% CI 0.25–0.33), respectively. Comorbidities were highly prevalent in individuals with HF.ConclusionHeart failure hospitalization is followed by high readmission and mortality rates.