Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesCohort study
Comorbidity Trajectories Before and After the Diagnosis of Heart Failure: A UK Biobank Cohort Study
- Cohort study
Authors' conclusion
Heart failure is most often diagnosed in people with established multiple long-term conditions.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank participants diagnosed with heart failure (HF) before enrolment or during follow-up, with primary and secondary care records
- Participants
- 9,824 participants
- Outcome
- Time between HF diagnosis and 16 common comorbidities (rate and sequence of comorbidity accrual)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Comorbidity accrual relative to HF
- HF was the median fourth diagnosis in chronological sequence for men and women
- HF came later with older age at diagnosis (median second in <50 years to fifth at 80-90 years)
- In all age strata, comorbidities accumulated for over a decade before HF, accelerating in the years immediately before HF
- Median time between comorbidity and HF: depression preceding HF by 10.7 years to dementia after HF by 0.7 years
- All comorbidities presented earlier in women
- Commonest disease immediately preceding HF: AF/flutter, then hypertension, cancer, MI, osteoarthritis
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Original publication
Comorbidity Trajectories Before and After the Diagnosis of Heart Failure: A UK Biobank Cohort Study. Eur J Heart Fail. Published 11 February 2025. doi:10.1002/ejhf.3601
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it