BackgroundDespite improved survival, hospitalization is still common among patients with heart failure (HF). ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine temporal trends in infection-related hospitalization among HF patients and compare it to temporal trends in the risk of HF hospitalization and death. MethodsUsing Danish nationwide registers, we included all patients aged 18-100 years, with HF diagnosed between 1st January 1997 and 31st December 2017, resulting in a total population of 147.737 patients. The outcomes of interest were primarily infection-related hospitalization and HF hospitalization and secondarily all-cause mortality. The Aalen Johansen's estimator was used to estimate five-year absolute risks for the primary outcomes. Additionally, cox analysis was used for adjusted analyses. ResultsThe population had a median age of 74 [64, 82] years and 57.6 % were males. Patients with HF had a higher risk of infection over time 16.4 % (95% CI 16.0–16.8) in 1997–2001 vs. 24.5% (95% CI 24.0–24.9) in 2012–2017. In contrast, they had a lower risk of HF hospitalization 26.5% (95% CI 26.1–27.0) in 1997–2001 vs. 23.2% (95% CI 22.8–23.7) in 2012–2017. The risk of infection stratified by infection type showed similar trends for all infection types and marked the risk of pneumonia infection as the most significant in all subintervals. ConclusionIn the period from 1997 to 2017, we observed patients with HF had an increased risk of infection-related hospitalization, driven by pneumonia infections. In contrast, the risk of HF hospitalization decreased over time.