Background: Trials to detect a mortality benefit in heart failure require long follow up periods and large numbers of participants, which is costly and time-consuming. It is quicker and more feasible to assess quality of life. The Minnesota Living With Heart Failure (MLWHF) Questionnaire is one of the most commonly used outcome measures in heart failure research. The relationship between quality of life and mortality in implantable cardiac device trials is not known.
Methods: PubMed was searched for randomised controlled trials up to 10th August 2022 reporting both the change in MLWHF score and mortality. Data was extracted by 2 researchers. The relationship between change in MLWHF score and log risk ratio was assessed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient.
Results: Four hundred and twenty records were screened. Seven studies, enrolling 3,078 participants met the eligibility criteria and were included in the analysis. Improved MLWHF score correlated with a reduction in mortality (r=0.93, p=0.002).
Conclusions: Change in MLWHF score may be a good indicator of prognostic benefit in implantable cardiac devices in heart failure. This could inform future clinical trial design. Further work is required to design even more user-friendly and digital patient-reported outcomes in heart failure device research. ❑
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