Prevalent Diabetes Mellitus: Mortality and Management in Norwegian Heart Failure Outpatients.
OBJECTIVE
Heart failure (HF) patients with diabetes mellitus experience poor prognosis. We assessed the independent predictive effect of prevalent diabetes mellitus on all-cause mortality in HF outpatients. Furthermore, we investigated if optimized HF medication differed in diabetic versus nondiabetic patients.


METHODS
From 6,289 patients included in the Norwegian HF registry during 2000-2012, 724 diabetic HF outpatients were propensity-score-matched with nondiabetic HF outpatients (1:1), based on 21 measured baseline variables. Baseline characteristics, measured comorbidities and medication were balanced in the matched sample.


RESULTS
Diabetes was not an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in the propensity-matched analyses (hazard ratio 1.041; 95% confidence interval 0.875-1.240). No interactions were found between the prognostic impact of diabetes and the strata renal function, systolic function or etiology of chronic HF. Diabetic HF outpatients were independently prescribed higher doses of β-blockers and loop diuretics (both p < 0.001) and were more prone to receive statins (p = 0.003) than nondiabetics.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalent diabetes mellitus was not an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in HF outpatients. Explanations other than tight glycemic control should be assessed to improve the prognosis of diabetic HF outpatients. The more intensive, optimized HF medication for diabetic HF outpatients may, to a certain degree, explain our results.
Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Viera
V
Stubnova
Ingrid
I
Os
Morten
M
Grundtvig
Bård
B
Waldum-Grevbo
D000368:Aged; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D054539:Medication Therapy Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D057216:Propensity Score; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D002317:Cardiovascular Agents; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents