Clinical InvestigationCongestive Heart FailureVulnerabilities of patients recovering from an exacerbation of chronic heart failure
Section snippets
Methods
In this descriptive study, we examined potentially modifiable risk factors among patients with HF enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a home-based HF disease management intervention. The data reported in this paper were collected at baseline before intervention.
Sample characteristics
A total of 206 patients with HF were enrolled. Four patients dropped from the study before the initial data collection period; thus, the final sample size was 202 (Table I). The sample included patients with both preserved (49%) and nonpreserved systolic function (51%). Most patients (88%) were under the care of a cardiologist during their hospitalization because of a consultation. Medication prescription patterns reflected use of evidence-based medicine (Table II).
Functional status, comorbidities, marital status, and living alone
Most patients were
Discussion
Many health care providers hold the common belief that patients discharged from a hospitalization for an exacerbation of HF have reached an acceptable level of stability. Some investigators have challenged this assumption,20, 21 and findings from the current study indicate that not only are many discharged patients clinically unstable, but also, they are vulnerable to rehospitalization because they have several modifiable risk factors that place them at jeopardy for further decompensation.
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