title: The prognosis of heart failure in the general population: The Rotterdam Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prognosis, cause of death, and its determinants in participants of the population-based Rotterdam Study who were found to have heart failure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 5255 Rotterdam Study participants (aged 68.9+/-8.6 years, 3113 women) the presence of heart failure was determined. Data were analysed with Cox's proportional-hazards models. One hundred and eighty-one participants (age 77.3+/-7.9 years, 109 women) had heart failure. Of these 85 (47%) died during the 4.8-8.5 (mean 6.1) years of follow-up. One, 2 and 5 years' survival was 89%, 79%, and 59%, representing an age-adjusted mortality twice that of persons without heart failure (hazard ratio 2.1, 95% CI 1.8-2.7). The hazard ratio for sudden death was even more pronounced: 4.8, (95% CI 2.6-8.7). Diabetes mellitus, impairment of renal function and atrial fibrillation were associated with a poor outcome. A higher blood pressure and body mass index conferred a more favourable prognosis in those with heart failure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heart failure generally afflicts older subjects in the community, carries a poor prognosis, especially in the presence of concomitant diseases, and confers a fivefold increase in the risk of sudden death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mosterd
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cost
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Hoes
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: de Bruijne
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Deckers
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofman
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Grobbee
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis