Depression Effects on Hospital Cost of Heart Failure Patients in California: An Analysis by Ethnicity and Gender

Associations of cumulative depressive symptoms within 1-year of discharge with subsequent mortality among patients hospitalized for acute heart failure: Findings from The China PEACE Prospective Heart Failure Study

BACKGROUND

To examine the associations between cumulative depressive symptoms and subsequent mortality among patients hospitalized for acute hear failure (AHF).

METHODS

By using data from a prospective cohort study of patients with HF, depressive symptoms were measured by using Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) at admission, 1-and 12-month after discharge. Cumulative depressive symptoms were interpreted by cumulative PHQ-2 score and cumulative times of depressive symptoms. Outcomes included subsequent 3-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

RESULTS

We included 2347 patients with the median follow-up of 4.4 (interquartile range [IQR]: 4.0-5.0) years. Tertile 3 of cumulative PHQ-2 score had the highest risk of all-cause (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.47, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.21-1.78) and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 1.51, 95 % CI: 1.21-1.89) compared with Tertile 1; patients with≥2 times of depressive symptoms had the highest risk of all-cause (HR: 1.62, 95 % CI: 1.31-2.00) and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 1.60, 95 % CI: 1.25-2.05) compared with patients without any depressive symptom. Cumulative PHQ-2 score provided the highest level of incremental prognostic ability in predicting the risk of all-cause (C-statistics: 0.64, 95 % CI: 0.62-0.66) and cardiovascular mortality (C-statistics: 0.65, 95 % CI: 0.62-0.67) on the basis of Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure score.

CONCLUSION

Cumulative depressive symptoms were associated with the increased risk of subsequent mortality and provided incremental prognostic ability for the outcomes among patients with HF. Repeated depressive symptom measurements could be helpful to monitor long-term depressive symptoms, identify targeted patients and perform psychological interventions and social support to improve clinical outcomes among patients with AHF.

Cost of Care for Patients With Cirrhosis

INTRODUCTION

There are limited longitudinal data on the cost of treating patients with cirrhosis, which hampers value-based improvement initiatives.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with cirrhosis seen in the Veterans Affairs health care system from 2011 to 2015. Patients were followed up through 2019. We identified a sex-matched and age-matched control cohort without cirrhosis. We estimated incremental annual health care costs attributable to cirrhosis for 4 years overall and in subgroups based on severity (compensated, decompensated), cirrhosis complications (ascites, encephalopathy, varices, hepatocellular cancer, acute kidney injury), and comorbidity (Deyo index).

RESULTS

We compared 39,361 patients with cirrhosis with 138,964 controls. The incremental adjusted costs for caring of patients with cirrhosis were $35,029 (95% confidence interval $32,473-$37,585) during the first year and ranged from $14,216 to $17,629 in the subsequent 3 years. Cirrhosis complications accounted for most of these costs. Costs of managing patients with hepatic encephalopathy (year 1 cost, $50,080) or ascites ($50,364) were higher than the costs of managing patients with varices ($20,488) or hepatocellular cancer ($37,639) in the first year. Patients with acute kidney injury or those who had multimorbidity were the most costly at $64,413 and $66,653 in the first year, respectively.

DISCUSSION

Patients with cirrhosis had substantially higher health care costs than matched controls and multimorbid patients had even higher costs. Cirrhosis complications accounted for most of the excess cost, so preventing complications has the largest potential for cost saving and could serve as targets for improvement.

Depression in Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction, an Undervalued Comorbidity: An Up-To-Date Review

Introduction: Depression is a common and severe comorbidity among individuals with heart failure (HF). Up to a third of all HF patients are depressed, and an even higher proportion have symptoms of depression. Aim: In this review, we evaluate the relationship between HF and depression, explain the pathophysiology and epidemiology of both diseases and their relationship, and highlight novel diagnostic and therapeutic options for HF patients with depression. Materials and Methods: This narrative review involved keyword searches of PubMed and Web of Science. Review search terms included ["Depression" OR "Depres*" OR "major depr*"] AND ["Heart Failure" OR "HF" OR "HFrEF" OR "HFmrEF" OR "HFpEF" OR "HFimpEF"] in all fields. Studies included in the review met the following criteria: (A) published in a peer-reviewed journal; (B) described the impact of depression on HF and vice versa; and (C) were opinion papers, guidelines, case studies, descriptive studies, randomized control trials, prospective studies, retrospective studies, narrative reviews, and systematic reviews. Results: Depression is an emergent HF risk factor and strongly relates with worse clinical outcomes. HF and depression share multiple pathways, including platelet dis-reactivity, neuroendocrine malfunction, inappropriate inflammation, tachi-arrhythmias, and frailty in the social and community setting. Existing HF guidelines urge evaluation of depression in all HF patients, and numerous screening tools are available. Depression is ultimately diagnosed based on DSM-5 criteria. There are both non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical treatments for depression. Regarding depressed symptoms, non-pharmaceutical treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and physical exercise, have shown therapeutic results, under medical supervision and with an effort level adapted to the patient's physical resources, together with optimal HF treatment. In randomized clinical studies, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the backbone of antidepressant treatment, did not demonstrate advantage over the placebo in patients with HF. New antidepressant medications are currently being studied and could provide a chance to enhance management, treatment, and control of depression in patients with HF. Conclusions: Despite the substantial link between depression and HF, their combination is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Considering the hopeful yet unclear findings of antidepressant trials, further research is required to identify people who may benefit from antidepressant medication. The goal of future research should be a complete approach to the care of these patients, who are anticipated to become a significant medical burden in the future.

Heart failure and depression: A perspective from bibliometric analysis

Background

Depression commonly occurs in heart failure patients, and negatively influences quality of life and disease prognosis. This study explored heart failure and depression-related research from a bibliometric perspective.

Methods

Relevant publications were searched on June 24, 2022. The Bibliometrix package in R was used to conduct quantitative analyses including the trends in publications, and related countries, articles, authors and keywords. VOSviewer software was used to conduct the visualization map on co-word, co-author, and institution co-authorship analyses. CiteSpace software was used to illustrate the top keywords with citation burst.

Results

A total of 8,221 publications in the heart failure and depression-related research field were published between 1983 and 2022. In this field, the United States had the most publications (N = 3,013; 36.65%) and highest total citation (N = 149, 376), followed by China, Germany, Italy and Japan. Author Moser and Duke University were the most productive author and institution, respectively. Circulation is the most influential journal. Apart from "heart failure" and "depression," "quality of life," "mortality" and "myocardial infarction" were the most frequently used keywords in this research area; whereas more recently, "self care" and "anxiety" have been used more frequently.

Conclusion

This bibliometric analysis showed a rapid growth of research related to heart failure and depression from 1989 to 2021, which was mostly led by North America and Europe. Future directions in this research area include issues concerning self-care and anxiety about heart failure. As most of the existing literature were published in English, publications in other languages should be examined in the future.

Healthy hearts healthy minds: A randomized trial of online interventions to improve physical activity

INTRODUCTION

Depressed individuals are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than those without depression. People with CVD have higher rates of depression than those without and have higher mortality rates if they have comorbid depression. While physical activity (PA) improves both, few people engage in enough. We compared self-guided internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) + Fitbit or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) + Fitbit, with Fitbit only to increase daily steps for participants with depression who have low PA.

METHODS

Adult participants (N = 340) were recruited from two online patient-powered research networks and randomized to one of three study interventions for 8 weeks with an additional 8 weeks of follow-up. Using linear mixed effects models, we evaluated the effect of the intervention on average daily steps (NCT03373110).

RESULTS

Average daily steps increased 2.8 steps per day in MBCT+Fitbit, 2.9 steps/day in CBT + Fitbit, but decreased 8.2 steps/day in Fitbit Only. These changes were not statistically different between the MBCT+Fitbit and CBT + Fitbit groups, but were different from Fitbit Only across the initial 8-week period. Group differences were not maintained across follow-up. Exploratory analyses identified comorbid anxiety disorders, self-reported PA, and employment status as moderators.

DISCUSSION

Changes in daily steps over both 8- and 16-week periods-regardless of intervention group-were minimal. The results emphasize the limits of using self-guided web-based psychotherapy with an activity tracker to increase PA in participants with a history of depression and low PA.

Change in Depressive Symptoms During the First Month of Discharge and 1-Year Clinical Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure

Background The patterns of depressive symptom change during the first month after discharge, as well as their prognostic implications, and predictors of persistent or new-onset depressive symptoms are not well characterized. Methods and Results We included patients hospitalized for heart failure undergoing Patient Health Questionnaire-2 before discharge and at 1 month after discharge in a multicenter prospective cohort. We characterized 4 patterns of change in depressive symptoms-persistent, new-onset, remitted depressive symptoms, and no depressive symptom-and examined the associations between the 4 patterns and 1-year clinical outcomes. We analyzed the factors associated with persistent or new-onset depressive symptoms. A total of 4130 patients were included. Among 1175 (28.5%) symptomatic patients and 2955 (71.5%) symptom-free patients before discharge, 817 (69.5%) had remission, and 366 (12.2%) had new-onset depressive symptoms, respectively. Compared with no depressive symptom, persistent depressive symptoms were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death (hazard ratio [HR], 2.10 [95% CI, 1.59-2.79]) and heart failure rehospitalization (HR, 1.56 [95% CI, 1.30-1.87]); new-onset depressive symptoms were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death (HR, 1.78 [95%CI, 1.32-2.40]) and heart failure rehospitalization (HR, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.29-1.83]). Remitted depressive symptoms were associated with a slightly increased risk of cardiovascular death but had no significant association with heart failure rehospitalization. Patients who were female or had poor socioeconomic status, stroke history, renal dysfunction, or poor health status had a higher risk of persistent or new-onset depressive symptoms. Conclusions Sex, socioeconomic status, clinical characteristics, and health status help identify patients with high risks of depressive symptoms at 1 month after discharge. Dynamic capture of depressive symptom change during this period informs long-term risk stratifications and targets patients who require psychological interventions and social support to improve clinical outcomes. Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier (NCT02878811).

The effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy on death anxiety and depression in patients with heart failure: A quasi-experimental study

PURPOSE

In this study, the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on death anxiety and depression was investigated in patients with heart failure.

DESIGN AND METHODS

In this quasi-experimental study, 66 patients with heart failure were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 33) and control (n = 33) groups. Data collection was done using a demographic questionnaire, Templer death anxiety scale, and Beck depression inventory.

FINDINGS

It was found that the overall scores of death anxiety and depression in posttest were significantly lower than those at the follow-up stage in the intervention group.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

CBT could significantly reduce death anxiety and depression in patients with heart failure. Therefore, it is recommended to equip nurses with CBT trainings to manage patients with heart failure better.

Depression in heart failure

Heart failure is one of the most prevalent long-term physical health conditions. It is suggested that up to 26 million people are living with it worldwide including approximately 920 000 people in the UK. Evidence has consistently demonstrated the links between cardiac health and mental health; therefore, this article will explain depression and its presentation in heart failure, as these two conditions have been strongly and consistently linked. The prevalence of depression in heart failure will be reviewed from epidemiological studies and an overview of the impact of comorbid depression in heart failure will be provided, with a particular focus on mortality, morbidity and quality of life outcomes. The relationship between depression and heart failure will be discussed by examining pathophysiological and behavioural mechanisms, as well as evidence regarding the appropriate identification and subsequent management of heart failure depression will be reviewed.

A Systematic Review of Cost-Effectiveness Analyses of Left Ventricular Assist Devices: Issues and Challenges

BACKGROUND

Advanced heart failure (HF) can be treated conservatively or aggressively, with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and heart transplant (HT) being the most aggressive strategies.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this review was to identify, describe, critique and summarize published cost-effectiveness analyses on LVADs for adults with HF.

METHODS

We conducted a literature search using PubMed and ProQuest DIALOG databases to identify English-language publications from 2006 to 2017 describing cost-effectiveness analyses of LVADs and reviewed them against inclusion criteria. Those that met criteria were obtained for full-text review and abstracted if they continued to meet study requirements.

RESULTS

A total of 12 cost-effectiveness studies (13 articles) were identified, all of which described models; they were almost evenly split between those examining LVADs as destination therapy (DT) or as bridge to transplant (BTT). Studies were Markov or semi-Markov models with one- or three-month cycles that followed patients until death. Inputs came from a variety of sources, with the REMATCH trial and INTERMACS registry common clinical data sources, although some publications also used data from studies at their own institutions. Costs were derived from standard sources in many studies but from individual hospital data in some. Inputs for health utilities, which were used in 11 of 12 studies, were generally derived from two studies. None of the studies reported a societal perspective, that is, included non-medical costs such as caregiving.

CONCLUSIONS

No study found LVADs to be cost effective for DT or BTT with base case assumptions, although incremental cost-effectiveness ratios met thresholds for cost effectiveness in some probabilistic analyses. With constant improvements in LVADs and expanding indications, understanding and re-evaluating the cost effectiveness of their use will be critical to making treatment decisions.