健康英语新闻:Heart failure hospital stays drop by almost 30 pct in U.S.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Heart failure (HF) hospitalizations dropped 29.5 percent nationally over the past decade, according to a study by Yale physicians to be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The risk-adjusted rate of heart failure hospitalization fell from 2,845 to 2,007 per 100,000 person-years from 1998 to 2008 in a fee-for-service Medicare claims analysis by Dr. Jersey Chen of Yale University and colleagues.

The team also found that the rate of hospitalization for black men dropped at a lower rate, and that one-year mortality rates declined slightly during that period, but remained high.

HF imposes one of the highest disease burdens of any medical condition in the United States and the risk increases with age. As a result, HF ranks as the most frequent cause of hospitalization and re-hospitalization among senior Americans. HF is also one of the most resource-intensive conditions, with direct and indirect costs in the United States estimated at 39.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

The study showed that the HF hospitalization rates varied significantly from state to state. The decline in the hospitalization rate from 1998 to 2008 was significantly higher than the national average in 16 states and significantly lower in three states (Wyoming, Rhode Island and Connecticut).

Chen and his team also found that risk-adjusted one-year mortality decreased from 31.7 percent to 29.6 percent between 1999 and 2008, a relative decline of 6.6 percent, with substantial variation in different states.

"Because of the substantial decline in HF hospitalizations, compared to the rate of 1998, there were an estimated 229,000 fewer HF hospitalizations in 2008," said Chen in a statement, adding that with a mean HF hospitalization cost of 18,000 dollars in 2008, this decline represents a savings of 4.1 billion dollars in fee-for-service Medicare.

"The overall decline in the heart failure hospitalization rate was mainly due to fewer individual patients being hospitalized with heart failure rather than a reduction in the frequency of repeat hospitalizations," said Chen.