Importance of comorbidities in the treatment of primary care patients with heart failure-Baseline results of the observational RECODE-HF Study

Background: Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities are related to the prognosis of chronic heart failure (HF), but so far little is known about the impact of comorbidities on treatment difficulties in routine care.

Objectives: To investigate which comorbidities are associated with treatment difficulties in primary care. We hypothesized that somatic comorbidities as well as psychosocial distress are associated with treatment difficulties.

Methods: In this baseline analysis of data of the observational RECODE-HF study, HF patients were recruited via primary care practices in two German sites. They received a questionnaire by mail to measure psychosocial distress. Each patient's GP was interviewed by phone regarding the patient's comorbidities and treatment difficulties. Logistic regression analyses controlled for GP cluster effects were calculated to investigate the association between comorbidities/psychosocial distress and treatment difficulties.

Results: The 3282 patients of 285 GPs included in the analysis were aged 74.2 (±10.1) years and had a mean number of 4.6 (±2.4) comorbidities. GPs reported treatment difficulties in 32.5% of the patients. Allergies/drug intolerance [odds ratio (ORs)=2.0], asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ORs=1.4), renal insufficiency (ORs=1.3), atherosclerosis/peripheral arterial occlusive disease (ORs=1.3) and cardiac arrhythmias (ORs=1.2) as well as patient-reported psychosocial distress (ORs=1.2), HF severity (ORs=3.7-1.6) and age (ORs=0.98) were associated with treatment difficulties.

Conclusion: Five somatic comorbidity groups as well as patient-reported psychosocial distress were significantly associated with a higher risk of GP-reported treatment difficulties. Further efforts to address comorbidities in clinical guidelines could be built on these results.