Nationwide trends in incidence, healthcare utilization, and mortality in hospitalized heart failure patients in Taiwan

AIMS: The objective of this study was to estimate the nationwide annual incidence, healthcare utilization, and mortality among hospitalized heart failure (HF) patients in Taiwan. METHODS AND RESULTS: People aged 20 years or older and having been newly admitted for HF between 2010 and 2015 were identified from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. For 124 816 patients with incident HF hospitalizations between 2010 and 2012, we further analysed their treatment patterns, healthcare utilizations, and mortality during index hospitalization and within 3 years following discharge from the index hospitalization. The age‐stratified incidences were declined by 10–20% in people aged 55 years or older, but increased by ~4% among people younger than 44 years old between 2010 and 2015. For all incident hospitalized HF patients, the percentages of patients visiting the emergency room, were rehospitalized, and treated with guideline‐directed medical therapy were highest in the first year. Approximately two‐thirds of subsequent hospitalizations were due to non‐HF and non‐cardiovascular causes. The all‐cause mortality rate during index hospitalization was 8.5%, whereas the mortality rates at 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years following discharge were 3.5%, 8.9%, 14.4%, 22.5%, 33.9%, and 42.8%, respectively, for those surviving index HF hospitalization. Non‐cardiovascular disease‐related deaths accounted for nearly 60% of all deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that, in contemporary Taiwan, the >10% annual mortality following the first year of hospitalization, 30% deaths occurring outside the hospital, and 60% non‐cardiovascular‐related deaths, along with the decreasing use of guideline‐directed medical therapy, highlight sectors requiring more attention.