Association of Frailty Status on the Causes and Outcomes of Patients Admitted With Cardiovascular Disease

Data are limited about the contemporary association between frailty and the causes and outcomes of patients admitted with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Using the US National Inpatient Sample, CVD admissions of interest (acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, and hemorrhagic stroke) were stratified by Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS). Logistic regression was used to determine adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of in-hospital mortality among different groups with frailty. The study included 9,317,398 hospitalizations. Of these, 5,573,033 (59.8%) had a low HFRS (<5); 3,422,700 (36.7%) had an intermediate HFRS (5 to 15); and 321,665 (3.5%) had a high HFRS (>15). Ischemic stroke was the most common admission for the groups with high risk (75.4%), whereas acute myocardial infarction was the most common admission for the group with low risk (36.9%). Compared with the group with low risk, patients with high risk had increased mortality across the most CVD admissions, except in patients admitted for cardiac arrest and hemorrhagic stroke (p <0.001). The strongest association with all-cause mortality was shown among patients with high risk admitted for AF (aOR 6.75, 95% CI 6.51 to 7.00, and aOR 17.69, 95% CI 16.08 to 19.45) compared with their counterparts with low risk. In conclusion, patients with CVD admissions have varying frailty risk according to cardiovascular cause of admission, with ischemic stroke being the most common among groups with frailty and high risk. Increased frailty is associated with all-cause mortality in patients with most CVD admissions, except for cardiac arrest and hemorrhagic stroke, with the strongest association seen in patients admitted with AF.