Self‐rated health and mortality in patients with chronic heart failure

Abstract

AimsIn patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), there is limited information on self-rated health (SRH). We aimed to examine the distribution of SRH and whether SRH is associated with mortality in patients with stable CHF. Methods and resultsWe enrolled 100 patients (71 + 11 years, 54% men, left ventricular ejection fraction 47 + 11%) in a prospective study with 48 months of follow-up. Self-rated health was assessed using a seven-grade descriptive scale: very good, good, quite good, average, quite poor, poor, and very poor. Median SRH was quite poor and the most frequent SRH (31 patients) was average. During an average follow-up of 1005 + 507 days, 58 patients died. More patients in the group that rated their health as quite poor or worse died (70% vs. 43%, P ¼ 0.008). In a Cox proportional hazard model, SRH as a seven-grade descriptive scale [hazard ratios (HR) 1.39, 95% CI 1.10-1.74] or as a median value (HR 2.13, 95% CI 1.23-3.69) predicted mortality. The association remained significant after adjustment for patient characteristics and biomarkers (P , 0.05 for both). ConclusionIn patients with stable CHF, SRH independently predicts mortality. This suggests that SRH could be used in everyday clinical practice to obtain important prognostic information beyond clinical examination and laboratory

Distribution of self-rated health and association with clinical parameters in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

“…Our findings on SRH distribution in patients with COPD confirm previous studies on such a relationship in patients with other chronic conditions (diabetes, cancer, chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease) [8][9][10][11][12]. Our study also demonstrates that SRH is worse in patients with COPD than in healthy control persons and confirms previous COPD reports on the deterioration of SRH with advanced stages of disease.…”

“…Clinicians could use SRH to identify those patients who might benefit from specific interventions, such as disease or case management [23]. Studies in other chronic diseases [8][9][10][11][12] have identified SRH as an independent predictor of mortality. Although such data in COPD are lacking, more attention in the clinical setting should be given to patients with COPD who rate their health unfavorably.…”

“…Self-rated health (SRH) data are popular because of their simplicity of collection and strong association with outcome; such data are generally considered to be a valuable source of information on health status [6,7]. SRH is also an independent predictor of mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus, cancer, chronic kidney disease and chronic heart failure [8][9][10][11][12]. SRH is thus recommended as a measure of health status for research and clinical purposes by the World Health Organisation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA, and the European Union Commission [13].…”

The Causal Role of Fatigue in the Stress-Perceived Health Relationship: A MetroNet Study

“…These simple questions can help identify patients who are a higher risk of future morbidity and mortality. 17,18,55 The inverse relationship between perceived health and the extent of general symptoms and diseases is plausible and supported by the literature. 17,18,56,57 However, the cross-sectional nature of this study limited our ability to test the causal associations.…”

Clinical characteristics of asymptomatic left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and its association with self‐rated health and N‐terminal B‐type natriuretic peptide: a cross‐sectional study

“…As a single‐item question, SRH is known to be a multifaceted and powerful tool that can indicate a decline in physical functionality9 and predict mortality and morbidity in subjects with chronic disease10 and the elderly 11. SRH also has disease‐specific predictive capabilities and has been reported to be an excellent predictor of recurrent ischaemic events after myocardial infarction12 and of the exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 13.…”