Abstract

IMPORTANCE: While there is increasing emphasis on incorporating patient-reported outcome measures in routine care for patients with heart failure (HF), how best to interpret longitudinally collected patient-reported outcome measures is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine the strength of association between prior, current, or a change in Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) scores with death and hospitalization in patients with HF with preserved (HFpEF) and reduced (HFrEF) ejection fractions. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Secondary analyses of the Treatment of Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure With an Aldosterone Antagonist (TOPCAT) trial of 1372 patients with HFpEF, conducted between August 2006 and January 2012, and the HF-ACTION trial that included 1669 patients with HFrEF, conducted between April 2003 and February 2007. EXPOSURES: Prior, current, and change in KCCQ Overall Summary scores (KCCQ-os) in 5-point increments (higher scores indicate better health status). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Time to cardiovascular death/first HF hospitalization (primary outcome) and all-cause death (secondary outcome). RESULTS: Of 1767 eligible TOPCAT participants, 882 were women (49.9%), and the mean (SD) age was 71.5 (9.7) years. Of 2130 eligible HF-ACTION participants, 599 were women (28.1%), and the mean age was 58.6 (12.7) years. Each 5-point difference in prior or current KCCQ-os scores was associated with a 6% (95% CI, 4%-8%; P < .001) to 9% (95% CI, 7%-11%; P < .001) lower risk for subsequent cardiovascular death/first HF hospitalization in patients with HFpEF and 6% (95% CI, 4%-9%; P < .001) to 8% (95% CI, 5%-10%; P < .001) lower risk for subsequent cardiovascular death/first HF hospitalization in patients with HRpEF and HFrEF in unadjusted analyses. Results were similar for change in KCCQ-os. In models with the prior and current KCCQ-os, only the current KCCQ-os was significantly associated with 10% (95% CI, 7%-12%; P < .001) and 7% (95% CI, 3%-11%; P < .001) lower risk for subsequent cardiovascular death/first HF hospitalization in patients with HFpEF and HFrEF, respectively. Similar results were observed when the current and Δ KCCQ-os were considered together, when adjusted for important patient and treatment characteristics, when including 3 sequential KCCQ-os scores, and when examining all-cause death as the outcome. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In serial health status evaluations of patients with HF, the most recent KCCQ score was most strongly associated with subsequent death and cardiovascular hospitalization in HFpEF and HFrEF. Measuring serial patient-reported outcome measures in the clinical care of patients with HF can provide an updated assessment of prognosis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00094302 (TOPCAT) and NCT00047437 (HF-ACTION).