Sex-specific clinical outcomes and healthcare resource utilization in the 5 years following hospitalization for heart failure

Heart failure (HF) a leading cause of hospitalization, and sex differences in care have been described.

We assessed sex-specific clinical outcomes and healthcare resource utilization following hospitalization for HF.

This was an exploratory analysis of patients hospitalized for HF across 10 Canadian hospitals enrolled in the Patient-Centred Care Transitions in HF pragmatic cluster-randomized trial. Primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes included all-cause readmissions, HF readmissions, emergency department (ED) visits, and healthcare resource utilization. Outcomes were obtained via linkages with administrative datasets.

The 4441 patients (50.7% female) had high event rates. At 5 years of follow-up, 63.6% male and 65.5% of male and female patients, respectively, had died (p=0.19); 85.4% and 84.4% of male and female patients, respectively, were readmitted with no sex differences in mean [SD] all-cause readmissions (males, 2.8 [7.8] and females, 3.0 [8.4], p=0.54) or HF readmissions (males, 0.9 [3.6] and females, 0.9 [4.5], p=0.80) per person. The mean (SD) annual total healthcare costs per patient was $80334 (116762) for males and $81010 (112625) for females, with no sex difference (p=0.90); however, there were sex differences in cost breakdown: males incurred greater costs from specialist, hemodialysis, and day surgical care, and females incurred greater costs from home visits and long-term care.

Males and females were at similarly high risk of mortality and readmissions, and had similar total healthcare costs following hospitalized for HF. Notwithstanding similar risks, males received relatively more specialist and invasive care, and females received relatively more supportive care.