Prevalence of Re-Hospitalization for Heart Failure in a Cameroonian Tertiary Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aim: To determine the prevalence of re-hospitalization for heart failure in the cardiology unit of the Yaoundé General Hospital. Study Design: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study from January 2015 to December 2020. Patients and Methods: Patients aged at least 18 years who were hospitalized for heart failure during the study period were included. Data were collected using a predesigned form and were analyzed using Epi InfoTM version 7.2.2. Results: We included a total of 160 patients. The prevalence of re-hospitalization was 30.6%. Re-hospitalized patients had a mean age of 71.0 ± 13.9 years and a sex ratio of 1.6. The most common etiologies of HF were hypertensive heart disease (36.7%), followed by dilated cardiomyopathy (22.5%), and atrial fibrillation (16.3%). More than two third had class IV NYHA disease (77.6%). Most of them also had HFrEF (71.4%) and anemia (77.6%). Conclusion: There is a high rate of re-hospitalization in the cardiology unit of the Yaoundé General Hospital with most of these patients having old age and severe HF.