Abstract
This study investigated sex differences in clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of heart failure hospitalizations. This study is a retrospective analysis of National Inpatient Sample data, 2016–2019. Heart failure hospitalizations ≥41 years of age were included and stratified by sex. The outcomes of the study were in-hospital mortality, prolonged length of stay, mechanical ventilation, mechanical circulatory support, vasopressor use, and adverse dispositions. Propensity score matching with regression analysis was done to compare outcomes between sex. A total of 4,704,684 primary heart failure hospitalizations were included in the analysis. Of these, 2,447,784 (52.0%) were males and 2,256,899 (48.0%) were females. Regression analysis showed that females had significantly lower odds for mortality (aOR, 0.92, 95% CI: 0.89-0.94), mechanical ventilation (aOR, 0.89, 95% CI: 0.86-0.92), mechanical circulatory support (aOR, 0.54, 95% CI: 0.51-0.58), vasopressor use (aOR, 0.71, 95% CI: 0.66-0.74), and significantly higher odds for prolonged length of stay (aOR, 1.05, 95% CI: 1.04-1.06) and disposition other than home (aOR, 1.32, 95% CI: 1.31-1.34). There were significant differences in outcomes between males and females hospitalized for heart failure. Further research is required to delineate how sex affects several aspects of heart failure, including epidemiology, risk factors, pathogenesis, and response to medications.