Death of a family member may increase heart failure mortality risk

Heart failure patients experiencing grief or in mourning following the loss of a close family member are at an increased risk of death, particularly during the first week following the family member's death, according to a new study.

Heart failure (HF) affects more than 64 million individuals worldwide. Previous study findings suggest that depression, anxiety and low social support are associated with poor prognosis in HF patients.

Many studies have also been conducted to confirm the relationship between severe emotional stress and Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also known as "broken heart syndrome." This study is one of the first to investigate the association between bereavement and HF risk.

The study authors looked at almost 500,000 patients from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry during 2000-2018 and/or patients with a primary diagnosis of HF from the Swedish Patient Register during 1987-2018.

Information on date and cause of family member deaths (children, spouse/partner, grandchildren, siblings and parents) was obtained from the Cause of Death Register. A total of 58,949 study participants experienced bereavement during the mean 3.7 years of follow-up.

The study authors analyzed whether relationship to deceased, cause of death or time passed since death affected HF mortality risk.