Objectives: In Switzerland there is a shortage of population-based information on heart failure (HF) incidence and case fatalities (CF). The aim of this study was to estimate HF event rates and both in- and out-of-hospital CF rates.
Methods: Data on HF diagnoses coded according to I 50 (ICD 10) were taken from the Federal Hospital Statistics Database and the Cause of Death Database for the year 2005.
Results: Although the total estimated number of HF events was higher for women (n = 4,201) than for men (n = 3,819), men showed higher numbers up to age group 65-74. Looking at age-specific HF cases per 100,000 population, men had higher rates in all age groups. The latter is also true of the age-standardised HF event rate (82.9/100,000 versus 51.4/100,000 population). Overall, CF was 26.3% and higher for women (32.2%) than for men (19.8%). The same is true of out-of-hospital CF but not of in-hospital CF.
Conclusion: The HF event rate was 20% higher than the HF hospital discharge rate. Out-of-hospital death from HF accounted for the largest proportion of total HF deaths. Sex differences in both the number of HF events and HF event rates can be explained by the larger number of women than men aged 55+ in the Swiss population.