Heart Failure Patients Must Avoid Weight Gain

According to a new study by researchers at Yale University, heart failure patients face increased risk of adverse outcomes if they gain weight over the short-term. Just a couple of pounds in additional weight might be enough to get put them in hospital, the researchers found.

When the heart is unable to pump sufficient amount of blood to meet the body’s demands, it comes under stress and fails. Heart failure can also come about on account of factors such as heart disease, high blood pressure, scarring from previous heart attacks and coronary heart disease.

For their study, the researchers from Yale University studied data gathered on 268 heart failure patients. All patients had their weight measured daily as part of a disease management program. The average age of the patients was 74.

A cross comparison of weight data and hospitalisation records was carried out for patients who were hospitalised and those who were not. The analysis revealed that those patients who were hospitalised had put on more weight in the month prior to being hospitalised than those who were not. Maximum weight gain was seen in the week before hospitalisation.

Those patients who put on two to five pounds on average in the week prior to hospitalisation had three times the risk of being hospitalised compared to patients with stable weight. On the other hand, those who gained five to 10 pounds were at 4.5 times higher risk of needing hospitalisation while those putting on more than 10 pounds were at nearly eight times the risk of needing hospitalisation on account of heart failure.

“We found that even small amounts of weight gain – as small as just over two pounds – predict hospitalization,” lead author Dr. Sarwat Chaudhry, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut said. “We found that weight gain starts well before hospitalization, giving doctors and patients at least a few days to take steps to avoid the need for hospitalization.”

Doctors already know weight gain to be a certain indicator of worsening heart disease. However, the current study is the first one to find a correlation between amount of weight gain and its timing on hospitalisation.

Published in the journal Circulation, the study findings suggest that patients and doctors might have many days, perhaps even weeks to bring weight under control and thereby avoid hospitalisation. “Heart failure is the most common reason for hospitalization among Americans, and more Medicare dollars are spent for heart failure than for any other diagnosis,” Dr. Chaudhry said.

“Our data suggest that a simple bathroom scale could empower patients in managing their own disease and alert their physicians to early signs of heart failure decompensation (the failure of the heart to maintain adequate blood circulation). Ultimately, our data may help change the standard of care to prevent patients from being hospitalized, improve their quality of life and save precious health care resources,” he added.

Noting that not all hospitalisations for heart failure occur on account of weight gain, the researchers stressed that keeping tabs on weight on a daily basis can definitely help patients. Following in the steps of their findings, the researchers are now conducting a clinical trial to check if it might be possible to reduce hospitalisation rates for heart failure patients through daily weight measurement.

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