TY - JOUR T1 - Heartbeat: socioeconomic deprivation is associated with non-cardiovascular mortality in chronic heart failure patients JF - Heart JO - Heart SP - 961 LP - 963 DO - 10.1136/heartjnl-2018-313460 VL - 104 IS - 12 AU - Catherine M Otto Y1 - 2018/06/01 UR - http://heart.bmj.com/content/104/12/961.abstract N2 - Healthcare costs for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) account for 2% of the UK National Health Service budget so that efforts to improve outcomes and reduce hospitalisations in this patient group is relevant to healthcare policy. However, the reasons for recurrent hospitalisation in CHF patients are not well understood. In order to assess whether socioeconomic deprivation, measured by the UK Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), contributes to adverse outcomes in CHF patients, Witte and colleagues1 analysed data from a prospective cohort of 1802 CHF patients (ejection fraction 45% or less) followed for a mean of 4 years. The IMD score was associated with non-cardiovascular mortality (9% higher risk per 10-unit increase in IMD score; 95% CI 3% to 16%; p=0.003), but not cardiovascular mortality (figure 1). Similarly, IMD score was associated with a higher rate of hospitalisation for non-cardiovascular causes. At first glance, these results seem counter-intuitive. However, this data makes evident the need to treat the entire patient with CHF and not just focus on heart failure treatment alone.Figure 1 All-cause and mode-specific … ER -