Sex Differences in Clinical Characteristics and 1- and 10-Year Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized With Acute Heart Failure

Background: The impact of sex on mortality in patients with acute heart failure (AHF) is unresolved. We aimed to investigate the impact of sex on both short- and long-term mortality outcomes after hospitalization for AHF. Methods: We analyzed data of 2,328 patients with AHF who were enrolled in the multicenter national survey in Israel between March and April 2003 and followed up until December 2014. Results: Women comprised 45% of the study population. In comparison with men, women were older, had higher rates of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction as well as hypertensive heart disease and had a lower rate of coronary artery disease (all P < 0.001). Survival analysis showed that at 1 year the rate of all-cause mortality was 31% among women compared to 28% among men (P = 0.19). At 10-year follow-up mortality rates were significantly higher among women compared to men (87% vs. 83%, P = 0.048). However, this sex association disappeared once multivariable analysis was carried out, (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.93; CI = 0.79-1.09, P = 0.36). Renal dysfunction, older age and severe heart failure were consistent independent predictors of mortality among men and women. Hyponatremia was a prognostic predictor only among men, whereas digoxin use predicted mortality only among women. Conclusions: There are important differences in the clinical characteristics between women and men hospitalized with AHF. There were no significant differences in both short- and long-term mortality following multivariable analysis. Although, most independent predictors of mortality were consistent among both sexes, few sex-based differences in prognostic predictors were identified.