By Karen Stokes
Even though Black adults with heart failure are more likely to die than white adults with the same condition, a new study found that the care is equitable.
A study published in JAMA Cardiology used the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Get With The Guidelines® – Heart Failure registry data.
Quality and outcomes were examined at hospitals treating high proportions of Black patients with Heart Failure and found that care is equitable, although areas for improvement remain.
For 11 of 14 evidence-based clinical care measures it was found that there was little to no disparities in the quality of heart failure care between Black and white patients.
Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure is an in-hospital program for improving care by promoting consistent adherence to the
latest scientific treatment guidelines that supports the AHA mission to reduce death and disability due to cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
It is evidence-based and founded on the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines for secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and is designed to help health care providers consistently treat patients in accordance with these accepted guidelines.
“These findings suggest Get With The Guidelines can help hospitals achieve equitable care for patients hospitalized with heart failure, an important American Heart Association aim,” said Gregg Fonarow, M.D., FAHA, an author of the study and an American Heart Association volunteer.
“While there remains critical population-level disparities in access to care, social determinants of health and care quality in other settings, the Get With The Guidelines – HF program is having an important impact,” said Fonarow.
The study suggests inequities in Heart Failure outcomes are not only driven by gaps in care quality at hospitals, but also that there is a need for renewed focus on public health and policy efforts to target upstream factors that disproportionately affect Black adults.
“This study shows the great strides we have made in heart failure care, as well as opportunities for even more improvement,” said Michelle Albert, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association.
The study was supported by an American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines – HF Young Investigator Research Seed Grant. The program is sponsored, in part, by Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly Diabetes Alliance, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, AstraZeneca and Bayer.