Long-Term Outcomes of Veterans With a Diagnosis of Heart Failure After COVID-19

Long-term clinical sequelae have been increasingly recognized among individuals after acute COVID-19. 1 These sequelae may be more pronounced in heart failure (HF) patients, who experience higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalization and in-hospital mortality compared to non-HF patients.2 In this retrospective cohort study using US Veteran Health Administration data, we investigated longterm outcomes of hospitalization and mortality among HF patients after COVID-19 diagnosis beyond the acute phase of the disease.Veteran Health Administration data were accessed via the VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure.The study has received approval from the Providence VA Medical Center Institutional Review Board.Veterans with preexisting HF (n ¼ 244,302) were identified based on having at least 1 medical encounter in the VA with an International Classification of Disease (ICD) diagnostic code for HF within the year prior to the beginning of the pandemic in the United States (February 2020).COVID-19 cases were identified among the cohort of veterans with pre-existing HF based on a record of a positive severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction or antigen test on an outpatient or inpatient nasopharyngeal swab conducted within or reported to the VA between February 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021.COVID-19 cases were age-, sex-, and race-matched with up to 5 veterans with pre-existing HF and no known positive SARS-CoV-2 test during the J A C C : A D V A N C E S , V O L . 2 , N O .