Quality of Care and Outcomes of Heart Failure Among Patients With Schizophrenia in Denmark

Research on the association between schizophrenia and the quality of care and clinical outcomes of heart failure (HF) remains sparse. This nationwide study compared the quality of care and clinical outcomes of HF among Danish patients with and without schizophrenia. In a population-based cohort study, we identified 36,718 patients with incident HF with hospital contacts, including 108 with schizophrenia, using Danish registries between 2004 and 2013. High quality of HF care was defined as receiving ≥ 80% guideline-recommended process-performance measures of care. Potential predictors of HF care among patients with schizophrenia included patient-specific factors (age, gender, Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF] score, alcohol or drug abuse, duration of schizophrenia); provider-specific factors (quality of schizophrenia care); and system-specific factors (patient-volume defined as hospital departments and clinics yearly average patient-volume of patients with incident HF). Clinical outcomes included 4-week all-cause readmission and 1-year all-cause mortality after a first-time hospital contact with incident HF. Results showed that compared with patients with incident HF who have no schizophrenia, patients with incident HF who have schizophrenia had a lower chance of receiving high-quality HF care (relative risk 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.48 to 0.91). A high GAF score was associated with a higher chance of receiving high-quality HF care among patients with incident HF who have schizophrenia. Patients with incident HF who have schizophrenia had a higher risk of 1-year mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 2.83, 95% confidence interval 1.59 to 5.04), but not a higher risk of readmission than patients with incident HF who have no schizophrenia. In conclusion, efforts are warranted to reduce the high mortality among patients with incident HF who have schizophrenia.