Association between diabetes and mortality in elderly patients admitted for a first episode of acute heart failure

Aim: To examine whether the presence of a prior diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM) influences mortality risk in elderly patients experiencing a first episode of heart failure (HF) hospitalization.

Methods: A total of 677 consecutive patients aged ≥75 years admitted for a first episode of acute decompensated heart failure were evaluated according to the presence or not of DM, and in-hospital and 1-year mortality rates were evaluated.

Results: A total of 240 patients (35.4%) had a diagnosis of DM. Overall, 42 patients (6.2%) died during admission; and 205 patients (30.3%) died after 1 year; however, no differences were observed in mortality rates between both groups. Cox univariate analysis did not identify prior DM diagnosis as a risk factor for 1-year mortality (HR 0.767, P < 0.082). Multivariate analysis identified older age (HR 1.101, P < 0.0001), lower preadmission Barthel Index (HR 0.987, P = 0.002), higher heart rate (HR 1.013, P = 0.02), higher admission serum potassium (HR 1.471, P = 0.016) and non-prescription of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor antagonists (HR 1.597, P = 0.018) as independent risk factors for 1-year mortality.

Conclusions: More than one-third of elderly patients experiencing a first admission because of acute heart failure decompensation had a prior diagnosis of DM. However, DM did not seem to be associated to a significant 1-year mortality risk. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 554-560.