Racial Differences in Heart Failure Outcomes: Evidence From the Tele-HF Trial (Telemonitoring to Improve Heart Failure Outcomes)

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are racial differences in patient-reported health status as well as mortality and rehospitalization after hospitalization for heart failure (HF).

Background: Little is known about whether racial differences exist in patient-reported outcomes after HF hospitalization.

Methods: We analyzed data from 1,427 patients (636 non-Hispanic African Americans [45%]; 791 non-Hispanic whites [55%]) enrolled in the Tele-HF (Telemonitoring to Improve Heart Failure Outcomes) trial. Health status was measured with the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) at baseline and then at 3 and 6 months. Generalized linear mixed models and propensity score methods were used to adjust for clustering within sites and differences between races.

Results: Although black patients reported better adjusted health status at baseline (black vs. white difference in KCCQ summary scores was 6.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.98 to 9.46; p < 0.001), after adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, clinical laboratory values, and baseline KCCQ score, we detected no significant racial differences in patient-reported health status at 3 months (black vs. white difference in KCCQ score: 2.28; 95% CI: -0.84 to 5.41; p = 0.15) or 6 months (black vs. white difference in KCCQ score: 1.91; 95% CI: -1.31 to 5.13; p = 0.24).

Conclusions: Compared with white patients, black patients with HF had better patient-reported health status shortly after HF admission but not at 3 or 6 months. Our study failed to show that black patients were disadvantaged with regard to health status after HF hospitalization. (Tele-HF: Yale Heart Failure Telemonitoring Study; NCT00303212).