Socioeconomic status and prognosis of heart failure with reduced vs. preserved ejection fraction: A propensity-matched study in the community.

Background: The relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the prognosis of HF with reduced (HFrEF) vs. preserved (HFpEF) ejection fraction remains unsettled. Objective: To analyze the relationship between SES and the prognosis of patients with incident HFrEF and HFpEF. Methods: Prospective study over 15 years (2003-2017) on 9658 patients diagnosed with HF. Main outcomes were mortality and hospitalizations for HF. The independent relationship between SES and the prognosis, stratifying patients for cardiovascular co-morbidity after propensity score-matching was analyzed. Results: After matching 7116 patients, during a median follow-up of 8.11 years, 5616 patients died (78.9%) and 5549 patients were hospitalized (78.0%). High income level was associated with a lower all-cause mortality (RR for HF patients [95% CI]: 0.86 [0.80-0.92], RR for HFrEF: 0.88 [0.82-0.95] and RR for HFpEF: 0.82 [0.75-0.90], P <0.001 in all cases), and cardiovascular mortality (RR for HF: 0.84 [0.76-0.92], RR for HFrEF: 0.87 [0.81-0.93] and RR for HFpEF: 0.88 [0.77-0.88], P <0.001 in all cases), less hospitalizations (RR for HF: 0.70 [0.65-0.78], RR for HFrEF: 0.78 [0.68-0.88] and RR for HFpEF: 0.61 [0.55-0.68], P <0.001 in all cases), and less 30-day readmissions (RR for HF: 0.67 [0.59-0.75], RR for HFrEF: 0.71 [0.63-0.79] and RR for HFpEF: 0.61 [0.55-0.69], P <0.001 in all cases), after adjustment for comorbidities, and other potential confounders. Analyses of recurrent hospitalizations gave larger SES benefits than time-to-first-event analyses. Conclusions: In this propensity-matched study, a high net annual household income is associated with an improved prognosis of patients with incident HFrEF and HFpEF.