Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of both death and illness and requires a considerable allocation of health care resources. In response to this issue, a coalition of leading Canadian cardiovascular organizations—including the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Heart Failure Society, the HeartLife Foundation, and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society—launched a major national initiative to develop a comprehensive HF strategy and implement a strong action plan across Canada. In support of this initiative, a recent economic analysis was published in CJC Open investigating hospitalization costs for patients with HF in Canada (excluding Quebec and the Territories) from 2010/2011 to 2018/2019 and projecting future costs through 2039/2040.
The researchers analyzed hospitalization records with a primary HF diagnosis between 2010/2011 and 2018/2019, identifying 436,160 HF hospitalization episodes. During this time, HF episodes rose from 43,114 to 54,743, patient numbers grew from 34,960 to 44,567, and total hospitalization costs increased from $684.3 million to $776.0 million, reaching a cumulative cost of $6.65 billion. Furthermore, projections based on generalized linear models and Statistics Canada population projections indicate a substantial future increase, with an estimated 1.69 million HF hospitalization episodes anticipated between 2019/2020 and 2039/2040, costing the Canadian health care system $19.5 billion. All reported costs are presented in 2022 Canadian dollars.
The substantial and increasing economic burden of HF hospitalizations in Canada underscores the importance of proactive health system planning. Furthermore, these research findings highlight the urgency of prioritizing early identification, ensuring timely access to assessments and diagnoses, and implementing robust outpatient interventions and efficient care pathways to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.
This study was co-authored by the CVC’s Emily Ellis, MPH, Hena Qureshi, MSc, Douglas Dover, PhD, and Padma Kaul, PhD; along with M. Patrice Lindsay, RN, PhD (Heart & Stroke), Sean Virani, MD and Nathaniel Hawkins, MD (University of British Columbia), Anique Ducharme, MD, MSc (University of Montreal), and Robert McKelvie, MD, PhD (Western University).
