ESC Heart FailureNov 2, 2026, 09:04 GMT

Dapagliflozin use stayed high amid heart failure dosing gaps

Dapagliflozin use was recorded in 95% of patients at six months and 96% at 12 months, but optimal doses of other drugs were uncommon.

Paper by Przemysław Leszek, Zoltan Csanádi, Ivan Tomov Gruev, +6Ovidiu Chioncel · Institute of Cardiology

Our read

Interventions

Studied:: Cohort study of 1,131 patients with HFrEF, up to 12 months (Multicenter)
What changed:: Dapagliflozin use was 95% at six months and 96% at 12 months
The catch:: The study described medication use, but health benefits were not measured
Stake:: AstraZeneca, which develops dapagliflozin, funded the study.
In the record:: The 113th paper on dapagliflozin with results in people; 459 on record in all.
Why it’s aging research:: It studies an intervention with evidence of extending healthy life.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

An observational study tracked medication use in 1,131 adults with heart failure whose hearts pumped out a reduced share of blood with each beat. Participants came from 102 centers in nine Central Eastern European and Baltic countries. Men outnumbered women almost three to one. Their average age at heart failure diagnosis was 62.7 years. Patients received dapagliflozin at 10 milligrams daily, with follow-up lasting up to 12 months.

Dapagliflozin use was recorded in 95% at six months and 96% at 12 months. At initiation, 60% received all four recommended heart failure drug classes, including dapagliflozin. That share remained stable over follow-up. The authors reported that few patients received the complete recommended regimen at optimal doses.

Why it matters

More than one-third of participants were aged 70–80 when dapagliflozin began, making delivery of recommended care relevant to health in later life. The authors called for better heart failure management decisions across the region.

Caveats

This uncontrolled observational study described medication use, not health benefits, and adverse events were reported only spontaneously. It excluded people with type 1 diabetes or prior use of dapagliflozin or other drugs in its class.