Cognitive Impairment Increases Mortality Risk In Heart Failure Patients

Elderly patients who are also dealing with cognitive issues may be at an increased risk of heart failure, according to recent findings presented at Heart Failure 2015.

"Systematic reviews have shown that cognitive impairment is common in patients with chronic heart failure," said Hiroshi Saito, a physiotherapist at Kameda Medical Centre in Kamogawa, Japan. "However, the impact of cognitive impairment on the prognosis of heart failure patients is not known. Our study investigated whether cognitive impairment independently predicted the outcome of elderly patients with heart failure."

For the study, researchers included 136 patients admitted to the hospital, all over the age of 65. Findings revealed that those with a cognitive issue were up to 7.5 times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital or die as a result of their heart issue.

Patients in the study were an average of 82 years old, with 74 percent of them dealing with cognitive impairments. From those, 24 percent were later readmitted due to heart failure or death.

"We expect that heart failure patients with cognitive impairment tend to get progressively worse at adhering to medications," added Saito. "It is possible that this could explain why they have a worse prognosis. Cardiologists and other medical staff should assess the cognitive status of elderly heart failure patients."

Researchers found the results to be true even after taking various other factors into account, including age, body mass index (BMI), etc. 

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