Heart failure drug class linked to lower death risk at 80 and older
Users had a lower relative rate of death from any cause than non-users, with a hazard ratio of 0.62 in an observational registry analysis.
Limit: Follow-up length, absolute death rates, doses, and harms were not reported
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study analyzed 46,733 people aged 80 and older with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. In this condition, the heart still pumps out a normal proportion of the blood it holds. Their average age was 85, and 56.7% were women. The registry included patients hospitalized for heart failure at 572 Chinese hospitals from 2017 to 2021.
Researchers matched users and non-users of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, a class of heart failure drugs, to balance their starting characteristics. Use was associated with lower death rates. Hazard ratios, which compare rates over follow-up, were 0.62 for death from any cause and 0.73 for death from heart and blood vessel causes, compared with non-use. Other statistical analyses produced consistent findings.
Why it matters
Very old adults have been underrepresented in major randomized trials of these drugs. This analysis addresses whether they may also benefit from their use in routine heart failure care.
Caveats
This observational study could not establish that the drugs caused the lower death rates, even after matching patients. The congress abstract did not report follow-up length, absolute death rates, doses or harms.
