Prevalence and Incidence of Heart Failure Among Urban Patients in China A National Population-Based Analysis

BACKGROUND: Large-scale and population-based studies of heart failure (HF) incidence and prevalence are scarce in China. The study sought to estimate the prevalence, incidence, and cost of HF in China. METHODS: We conducted a population-based study using records of 50.0 million individuals >= 25 years old from the national urban employee basic medical insurance from 6 provinces in China in 2017. Incident cases were individuals with a diagnosis of HF (International Classification of Diseases code, and text of diagnosis) in 2017 with a 4-year disease-free period (2013-2016). We calculated standardized rates by applying age standardization to the 2010 Chinese census population. RESULTS: The age-standardized prevalence and incidence were 1.10% (1.10% among men and women) and 275 per 100 000 person-years (287 among men and 261 among women), respectively, accounting for 12.1 million patients with HF and 3.0 million patients with incident HF >= 25 years old. Both prevalence and incidence increased with increasing age (0.57%, 3.86%, and 7.55% for prevalence and 158, 892, and 1655 per 100 000 person-years for incidence among persons who were 25-64, 65-79, and >= 80 years of age, respectively). The inpatient mean cost per-capita was $4406.8 and the proportion with >= 3 hospitalizations among those hospitalized was 40.5%. The outpatient mean cost per-capita was $892.3. CONCLUSIONS: HF has placed a considerable burden on health systems in China, and strategies aimed at the prevention and treatment of HF are needed.

Automated summary

The study revealed an increasing prevalence and incidence of HF with age in China, posing a considerable burden on the country's health systems.