ArticlePharmacotherapy2025
Prevalence of prescription medication use that can exacerbate heart failure among US adults with heart failure.
Article in Pharmacotherapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Development and validation of a machine learning-based clinical decision support tool for stratifying intravenous medication risk in hospitalized patients with heart failure.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- Prevalence of prescription medication use that can exacerbate heart failure among US adults with heart failure.Pharmacotherapy · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionHeart failure (HF) affects more than 6 million adults in the United States, contributing to substantial morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. Despite advances in medical care, many medications can exacerbate HF, yet their prevalence of use remains unknown. This study examined the national use of prescription medications that could exacerbate HF in adults with self-reported HF.
methodsWe analyzed data from US adults with self-reported HF in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2011 to March 2020. Medications known to exacerbate HF, identified from HF guidelines, were documented through pill bottle reviews. Weighted estimates were used to calculate prevalence overall and by sex, race and ethnicity, and level of evidence for avoidance. Multivariable logistic regression models calculated adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the use of these high-risk medications by sex and race and ethnicity.
resultsA total of 687 participants, representing 5.2 million U.S. adults with HF after applying sampling weights, were included (mean age, 66.1 [95% CI 64.9, 67.4] years; 50.4% female [95% CI 45.9%, 55.0%]). Overall, 14.5% (95% CI 10.4%, 19.5%; n = 92) of adults with HF were prescribed at least one medication known to exacerbate HF, with the most common being diltiazem, meloxicam, and ibuprofen. Use of these medications was not significantly different by sex nor by race and ethnicity. Of these medications, 21.7% (95% CI 10.7%, 38.8%) had level A evidence warning against use, and 78.3% (95% CI 61.2%, 89.3%) had B level evidence.
conclusionOver one-seventh of U.S. adults with HF were likely to have been prescribed medications that could exacerbate the condition, underscoring the need to optimize care. Reducing high-risk medication use may mitigate HF exacerbations and improve outcomes in this vulnerable population.
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