Noncompliance with Dietary Salt Restriction and Outcomes in Chronic Heart Failure: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis from TREAT-HF Registry

Abstract

Aim: To compare chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (cHFrEF) who stated to comply with salt restriction in their diets versus those who did not. Methods: Patients without salt restriction were compared to those with salt restriction regarding HF-related hospitalization (HFrH) and all-cause mortality (ACM) before and after propensity score (PS) matching analysis. Results: The study included a total of 723 patients. 136 of them stated not to comply with salt restriction, 587 of them stated to comply with salt restriction. More frequent HFrH were observed in patients without salt restriction compared to those with salt restriction (75% vs. 62.9%, p=0.007), though, ACM was similar in both groups (29.4% vs 27.6%, p=0.672). After PS matching, HFrH during follow-up remained more frequent in those without salt restriction compared to those with salt restriction (73.7% vs 59.3%, p=0.019) but ACM was not different in both groups (30.5% vs 29.7%, p=0.887). Noncompliance to dietary salt restriction was found as one of the independent predictors of HFrH. Conclusion: In cHFrEF outpatients, noncompliance to dietary salt restriction does not seem to increase the risk for ACM but it poses an increased risk for HFrH.