Prevalence of heart failure in Chinese cognitive impairment patients： a meta-analysis

ObjectiveHeart failure （HF） and cognitive impairment have become serious medical problems in China. This study used meta-analysis to comprehensively evaluate the prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with HF in China， and provided suggestions for intervention and prevention of cognitive impairment in this population.

MethodsA systematic retrieval was conducted by searching relevant literatures regarding cognitive impairment in Chinese HF patients. These reports were published on CNKI， Wanfang， SinoMed， VIP and PubMed， from January 1， 1980 to July 10， 2020. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality （AHRQ） criteria and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were used to evaluate the literature quality of cross-sectional studies and case-control studies， respectively. Stata16.0 was used for combined prevalence and effect value.

ResultsA total of 20 articles with medium quality were included. Six of them were case-control studies， with a total sample size of 933 people， and healthy people as controls. The Odds Ratios （OR） value of the prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with HF was 2.77 （95% CI： 2.05-3.74）. 14 articles were cross-sectional studies with a total sample size of 3000. In China， the prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with HF was 54.3% （95% CI： 0.43-0.65）. Subgroup analysis showed that the prevalence of cognitive impairment was increased with age， and women had a higher prevalence （58.4%） than that in men （48.4%）. The prevalence in studies using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment （MoCA）to evaluate cognitive impairment （63.6%） was higher than those using Mini-mental State Examination （MMSE）（41.7%）. The limitations of this study include the following： only used the relevant literature on cognitive impairment in patients with HF in China； failed to explain the source of heterogeneity， unable to determine the impact of the study area on heterogeneity， and unable to determine the causality of HF and cognitive impairment.

ConclusionThe prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with HF in China is high and significantly affected by age， gender and other factors. Appropriate measures should be taken for prevention and timely intervention.