title: Quality of life as an independent predictor for cardiac events and death in patients with heart failure.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about health-related quality of life (QOL) in Japanese patients with heart failure. The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to QOL using a disease-specific QOL instrument, and to clarify whether QOL independently predicts clinical outcomes among Japanese patients with heart failure.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 114 outpatients with heart failure were enrolled (mean age 64.7 ± 15.8 years; 73.7% males). The Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) to assess patient's QOL was used. At baseline, depressive symptoms and chronic kidney disease were significantly associated with worse QOL in multiple regression analysis. During a 2-year follow up, patients with a MLHFQ score ≥ 26, indicating worse QOL, had a higher incidence of the combined endpoint of cardiac death or hospitalization for heart failure, and a higher all-cause mortality than those with a score < 26 (25.3% vs. 7.5%, P = 0.011; 18.5% vs. 6.4%, P = 0.018; respectively). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models demonstrated that a higher MLHFQ score was significantly associated with increased risks of cardiac events (hazard ratio, 1.02, 95% confidential interval, 1.001-1.05, P = 0.038) and of all-cause death (hazard ratio, 1.04, 95% confidential interval, 1.02-1.07, P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Depressive symptoms and chronic kidney disease are major determinants of impaired QOL, and the MLHFQ score is an independent predictor of both cardiac events and death among Japanese patients with heart failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. naokat-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kinugawa
authors.forename: Satomi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiga
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hatano
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Yasunobu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kazuma
authors.forename: Ryozo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagai
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000523:psychology*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015996:Survival Rate