Incidence of Heart Failure Hospitalisation Across Ethnic Groups in Malaysia: a Ten-Year Population- Based Analysis

Introduction Almost no country-specific incidence trends data of de novo heart failure (HF) hospitalisations are available for Southeast Asia. This study aimed to determine the trends in incidence of HF hospitalisations and how these differ by age, sex and ethnicity in Malaysia.    

Methodology Using a national hospital discharge database, we estimated the rates of incident HF hospitalisations between 2007 and 2016.     

Results Of 105 399 patients who had incident hospitalisations for HF, 58 866 (55·9%) were men and 67 374 (63.9%) were 60 years and older. By ethnicity, 64 146 (60·9%) were Malay, 18·2% were Chinese, 10·9% were Indian and a remaining 9·7% were other ethnic groups combined. The absolute number of new hospitalisations increased by 52·3%. Meanwhile, standardised incident HF hospitalisations decreased at a similar rate for both men and women, by an average of 1% per calendar year. Overall, women had lower incidence than men after adjusting for age, ethnicity and calendar year (incidence rate ratio 0·77; 95% confidence interval 0·74-0·80). Although age-standardised incidence was highest in the Indian ethnic group, this subgroup has also exhibited the highest annual rate of decline compared to other ethnic groups. Of note, Indian women had elevated risk of incident HF hospitalisation compared to women of other ethnic groups.    

Conclusion Incidence of HF hospitalisations has decreased in the past ten years, irrespective of sex. However, differences in absolute risks of HF hospitalisations remain across sex and ethnic groups, representing opportunity for public health initiatives to target high-risk subgroups to reduce HF hospitalisations.   

[Disclaimer: Abstract text might vary slightly from what is displayed in the e-poster]