Use of heart failure medications in older individuals and associations with cognitive impairment

BACKGROUND: To achieve the best treatment of heart failure, it is important to use all recommended drugs at their target doses. Given that underuse of medications can occur in individuals with cognitive impairment, we investigated the filled prescriptions and target doses of heart failure medication for older individuals with and without cognitive impairment as well as associated factors. METHODS: The study was based on two separate datasets. The first dataset, which was based on data from questionnaires sent to nursing homes in Sweden, included 405 individuals with heart failure. The data were linked with the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register and the National Patient Register to obtain information regarding filled prescriptions of heart failure medications and heart failure diagnoses among the population. In the second dataset, medical records of individuals aged 75 years or older admitted to a hospital in northern Sweden were reviewed and individuals with heart failure were identified. Target doses of heart failure medications were evaluated in 66 individuals who lived at home. RESULTS: Filled prescriptions of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists and loop diuretics were significantly more common in individuals without cognitive impairment (OR 1.087; 95% CI 1.026–1.152, p < 0.05) and (OR 1.057; 95% CI 1.017–1.098, p < 0.05), respectively. There were no significant differences between individuals with and without cognitive impairment in terms of achieving target doses for any of the drug classes. A higher age was associated with fewer filled prescriptions and less ability to reach the target doses of beta blockers (OR 0.950; 95% CI 0.918–0.984, p < 0.05) and (OR 0.781; 95% CI 0.645–0.946, p < 0.05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that individuals with cognitive impairment are partly undertreated for heart failure in that they had fewer filled prescriptions of important heart medications. Separately, the relatively low proportion of older individuals reaching target doses is an important observation and indicates that treatment of heart failure could be further optimised among older individuals. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-023-04223-3.