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Resource use and costs in systolic heart failure according to disease severity: a pooled analysis from the German Competence Network Heart Failure

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Abstract

Aim

Systolic chronic heart failure (CHF) is currently one of the most prevalent cardiac diseases. The present analysis sought to estimate the 1-year disease-related resource use and associated management costs of patients with CHF.

Subject and methods

A total of 2,710 individuals with systolic CHF [mean age 62.9 years ± 13.6, 25.2% female, New York Heart Association (NYHA) I–IV] were included from the German Competence Network Heart Failure. Disease-related resource use was assessed with regard to outpatient contacts with physicians, hospitalizations including rehabilitation stays and drug utilization.

Results

During 1 year, patients had on average 6.1 contacts with their general practitioner, 1.7 contacts with cardiologists and 0.8 hospital stays per year. Overall disease-related health care costs per patient were calculated at 3,150 € per year. The largest component related to hospitalizations (2,328 €, 74%), while costs of rehabilitation (294 €, 9%), medication (290 €, 9%) and outpatient contacts (238 €, 8%) were considerably lower. Compared with 2,474 € in NYHA class I, there was a cost increase in NYHA II, III and IV of 14, 48 and 71%, respectively. About 76% of this cost increase resulted from augmented hospital (inpatient) resource use.

Conclusion

The present analysis demonstrates a high disease-related resource consumption of heart failure care. In particular, patients in higher NYHA classes require increased inpatient resources. Hence, improved treatment strategies need to be developed to optimize care thus reducing hospitalization rates.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Competence Network of Heart Failure funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), FKZ 01GI0205.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinic of Cardiology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

    Janine Biermann, Till Neumann & Raimund Erbel

  2. Institute for Health Care Management and Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Schützenbahn 70, 45127, Essen, Germany

    Janine Biermann, Jürgen Wasem & Anja Neumann

  3. Department of Internal Medicine I and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Christiane E. Angermann & Stefan Störk

  4. Department Cardiology, Charité University Medicine, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Berlin, Germany

    Hans-Dirk Düngen & Cemil Özcelik

  5. Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Wolfgang Herzog & Thomas Müller-Tasch

  6. Department of Internal Medicine – Cardiology, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Bernhard Maisch & Sabine Pankuweit

  7. Department of Cardiology, University Graz, Graz, Austria

    Burkert Pieske

  8. Department for Clinical Pharmacology, Medical Faculty, Karl Gustav Carus, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    David Pittrow

  9. Department of Cardiovascular Diseases in Women, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany

    Vera Regitz-Zagrosek

  10. Institute for Heart and Circulation Research, University of Witten/Herdecke, Dortmund, Germany

    Thomas Scheffold

  11. Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Rolf Wachter

  12. Clinical Trial Centre Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Götz Gelbrich

Authors
  1. Janine Biermann
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  2. Till Neumann
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  3. Christiane E. Angermann
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  4. Hans-Dirk Düngen
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  5. Raimund Erbel
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  6. Wolfgang Herzog
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  7. Bernhard Maisch
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  8. Thomas Müller-Tasch
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  9. Cemil Özcelik
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  10. Sabine Pankuweit
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  11. Burkert Pieske
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  12. David Pittrow
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  13. Vera Regitz-Zagrosek
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  14. Thomas Scheffold
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  15. Stefan Störk
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  16. Rolf Wachter
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  17. Götz Gelbrich
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  18. Jürgen Wasem
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  19. Anja Neumann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anja Neumann.

Additional information

Janine Biermann and Till Neumann contributed equally to the study.

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Biermann, J., Neumann, T., Angermann, C.E. et al. Resource use and costs in systolic heart failure according to disease severity: a pooled analysis from the German Competence Network Heart Failure. J Public Health 20, 23–30 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-011-0452-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-011-0452-0

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