Introduction: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Israel as it is worldwide. Most epidemiological studies in Israel have focused on hospitalized patients and have rarely analyzed this condition in the real-world setting. We compare male and female CHF patients and their treatment patterns in Maccabi healthcare services (MHS).
Methods: Included in the study were adult members of MHS who were diagnosed with CHF between January 2006 and December 2012. MHS comprehensive computerized databases were used to collect demographic, clinical and health services utilization data for these patients.
Results: We assessed a total of 7691 CHF patients, 40.0% (3076) of whom had a documented ejection fraction (EF) at diagnosis. Female patients (43.8%) were more often missing EF information compared to men (65.5% vs. 55.7%, respectively). Among patients with documented EF at time of CHF diagnosis, males were significantly (p<0.001) younger (mean age 70.0y) compared to females (74.1y), more likely to have a reduced EF (40.6% vs. 22.0%), have ever been a smoker (24.5% vs. 10.2%), and have a history of ischemic heart disease (69.9% vs. 44.5%). Females had a higher mean(±SD) BMI (30.2±6.4 vs. 29.0±5.1 kg/m2) despite being more likely to have been treated with diuretics prior to their CHF diagnosis (46.4% and 38.6% among females and males, respectively). Comparison of healthcare resource use and disease prognosis between patient groups will be presented as well.
Conclusions: Male and female CHF patients are clinically and statistically significantly different in important clinical characteristics as well as in the availability of important diagnostic and prognostic information. The significance of these differences for disease prognosis will be further assessed.
