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Use of Medicines that May Exacerbate Heart Failure in Older Adults: Therapeutic Complexity of Multimorbidity

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Abstract

Background

Multimorbidity is common in older patients with heart failure (HF), complicating therapeutic management and increasing the risk of harm.

Objective

This study sought to examine the prevalence of medicines for the treatment of comorbid conditions potentially associated with harm in older people, before and after HF hospitalization.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study of older people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of HF over a 12-month period was conducted using administrative health claims data from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Australia. We examined the prevalence of medicines that may exacerbate or worsen HF as defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Australian HF clinical guidelines, in the 30 days prior and 120 days before and after discharge for HF.

Results

A total of 4069 older adults were hospitalized for HF during the study period; almost 60% (n = 2435) received at least one medicine associated with an increased risk of harm before hospitalization, with the majority (66.7%, n = 1623) dispensed in the 30 days prior. A small but significant reduction after hospitalization was observed, but 56% (n = 1638) received at least one of these medicines after hospitalization (p = 0.001). Over one-quarter received two or more medicines before hospitalization, and this only reduced to 22% post-hospitalization (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions

Little change in the prescribing of potentially harmful medicines for HF was observed; 56% of older adults received at least one following hospitalization for HF, highlighting the therapeutic complexity of multimorbidity in HF. Use of the AHA list to facilitate identification of potentially harmful medicines, followed by prioritization of treatment goals and appropriate risk mitigation are needed to facilitate reduction in hospitalization for patients with HF with multimorbidity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs for providing the data used in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of Pharmacology, Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5001, Australia

    Gillian E. Caughey & Sepehr Shakib

  2. School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 5001, Australia

    Gillian E. Caughey, John D. Barratt & Elizabeth E. Roughead

  3. Clinical Pharmacology, Royal Adelaide Hospital, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5001, Australia

    Gillian E. Caughey & Sepehr Shakib

Authors
  1. Gillian E. Caughey
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  2. Sepehr Shakib
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  4. Elizabeth E. Roughead
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Contributions

GEC contributed to the study design and analysis plan and data and statistical analysis, wrote the manuscript, and reviewed/edited manuscript. SS and EER contributed to the study design and analysis plan and reviewed and edited the manuscript. JDB contributed to the data and statistical analysis and reviewed and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gillian E. Caughey.

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Funding

This study was supported by funding from an Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Post-Marketing Surveillance of Medicines and Medical Devices Grant (APP1040938). EER is supported by an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellowship (APP1110139).

Conflict of interest

GE Caughey, S Shakib, JD Barratt, and EE Roughead have no conflicts of interest that might be relevant to the contents of this manuscript.

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Caughey, G.E., Shakib, S., Barratt, J.D. et al. Use of Medicines that May Exacerbate Heart Failure in Older Adults: Therapeutic Complexity of Multimorbidity. Drugs Aging 36, 471–479 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-019-00645-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-019-00645-0

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