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By Kirsten Houmann, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent 1531
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Patients with heart failure often overestimate their life expectancy, new research shows. Younger patients, less depressed patients and those with more severe cases are more likely to have unrealistic survival expectations.
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What patients are told and what they hear can be two different things, Stephanie Moore, M.D., a cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center who is not associated with the study, told Ivanhoe.
Researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C., compared the personal predictions of life expectancy of 122 heart failure patients with clinically predicted life expectancies. Researchers predicted life expectancies using the Seattle Heart Failure Model, which takes into account factors like age, medications and lab data. They found 63 percent of patients overestimated their life expectancy by a median of 3 years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 5 million people in the United States have heart failure. Despite advancements in care, the prognosis for patients with symptomatic heart failure is poor, with a median life expectancy of less than 5 years.
I think its important for physicians to understand what patients hear in a conversation versus what we think we said, Dr. Moore said. Interpretation is vital to patient care.
Dr. Moore also suggested that heart failure patients bring a support person with them to the doctor to hear and understand the facts more clearly.
SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Stephanie Moore, M.D.; Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;299:2533-2542
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