Introduction: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a growing medical and economic problem, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. However, only a few studies analyzed the prevalence of CHF in this region.
Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of CHF in a representative sample of adult Poles.
Patients and methods: The NATPOL 2011 project was a cross‑sectional study of a representative sample of the adult Polish population that included 2413 individuals (1245 women, 1168 men) aged 18 to 79 years (mean [SD] age, 45.8 [16.7] years). All participants completed a detailed questionnaire and underwent laboratory tests. We evaluated the prevalence of CHF based on self‑reported symptoms, Pol-ish National Health Fund database, and the N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT‑proBNP) level.
Results: The proportion of patients that reported the diagnosis of CHF was 4.3% (95% CI, 3.6%-5.2%). Only 0.2% of people aged under 40 years reported CHF, compared with 3.2% of those aged 40 to 59 years and 13.2% of those aged 60 to 79 years. The distribution of NT‑proBNP levels in the patients with CHF was markedly skewed to the right, with the median value of 181 pg/ml (interquartile range, 90.8-531). Among the 104 individuals who declared having CHF, almost 56% had a record of at least 1 outpatient visit or hospitalization related to the ICD‑10 I50 code in the National Health Fund database, which translates to 2.4% of confirmed diagnoses of CHF in all Polish adults.
Conclusions: The results of our study indicated that the proportion of inhabitants of Poland aged 18 to 79 years with heart failure was somewhere between 2.4% and 4.3%. This corresponds to 720 000 to 1 200 000 of diagnosed CHF cases in Poland.