Patient-reported outcomes are independent predictors of one-year mortality and cardiac events across cardiac diagnoses: Findings from the national DenHeart survey

Aims Patient-reported quality of life and anxiety/depression scores provide important prognostic information independently of traditional clinical data. The aims of this study were to describe: (a) mortality and cardiac events one year after hospital discharge across cardiac diagnoses; (b) patient-reported outcomes at hospital discharge as a predictor of mortality and cardiac events. Design A cross-sectional survey with register follow-up. Methods Participants: All patients discharged from April 2013 to April 2014 from five national heart centres in Denmark. Main outcomes Patient-reported outcomes: anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale); perceived health (Short Form-12); quality of life (HeartQoL and EQ-5D); symptom burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale). Register data: mortality and cardiac events within one year following discharge. Results There were 471 deaths among the 16,689 respondents in the first year after discharge. Across diagnostic groups, patients reporting symptoms of anxiety had a two-fold greater mortality risk when adjusted for age, sex, marital status, educational level, comorbidity, smoking, body mass index and alcohol intake (hazard ratio (HR) 1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-2.42). Similar increased mortality risks were found for patients reporting symptoms of depression (HR 2.29, 95% CI 1.81-2.90), poor quality of life (HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.39-0.54) and severe symptom distress (HR 2.47, 95% CI 1.92-3.19). Cardiac events were predicted by poor quality of life (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.65-0.77) and severe symptom distress (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.35-1.85). Conclusions Patient-reported mental and physical health outcomes are independent predictors of one-year mortality and cardiac events across cardiac diagnoses.