Effectiveness of nurse-led hospital-based heart failure programmes in octagenarians and nonagenarians: is age important?

Background Efficacy of HF programmes in oldest old (octogenarians and nonagenarians) has not been fully explored. Methods We conducted a natural experiment evaluating all patients after hospitalization for heart failure as primary diagnosis between January 2017 and January 2019. We compared outcomes between patients discharged during Period #1, before the implementation of the program with patients discharged during Period #2, after the implementation of the 7-step bundle of interventions. We explored the interaction between age group ( Results The study enroled 440 patients. Mean age of the whole cohort was 75±9 years. In the oldest old subgroup (n=160), mean age was 84±3. No differences were found in baseline characteristics of patients between usual care and HF program. 30-day all-cause readmission was significantly reduced in patients in the HF programme group compared to patients in the usual care group in both age strata. In unadjusted Cox regression analyses in the oldest old group, management of patients in the HF programme was significanty associated with a reduction in the risk of the primary end-point (HR: 0.50; 95% CI [0.29–0.85]; p=0.011). Conclusions Management of patients in a nurse-led integrated care-based heart failure programme results in reduction of all-cause death or all-cause hospitalizations in oldest old patients. Event-free survival cumulative curves. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None