Association of depressive symptoms and engagement in physical activity with event-free survival in patients with heart failure

Background: Heart failure (HF) subtype, depressive symptoms, and physical inactivity independently contribute to survival outcomes, but the effect of the interaction of these variables on survival outcomes remains unknown. Objectives: We aimed to determine whether depressive symptoms and engagement in physical activity differentially interact to predict the combined endpoint of all-cause death or rehospitalization among patients with HF and reduced (HFrEF) or preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Methods: This study was a secondary analysis. The sample was categorized by the presence or absence of depressive symptoms, and engagement or non-engagement in physical activity. Cox proportional hazard modeling was used to predict the combined endpoint of all-cause death or rehospitalization. Results: A total of 1002 patients with HF were included (mean age 64.3 ± 12.7 years; 637 males [64 %]; 844 White [84 %]). Among them, 35.3 % did not engage in physical activity, while 64.7 % engaged in any level of physical activity, and 29.7 % had depressive symptoms. In both subtypes, depressive symptoms were associated with the highest risk of all-cause death or rehospitalization. Among patients with HFrEF, those with depressive symptoms who did not engage in physical activity were associated with a 136 % higher risk of the combined endpoint, while among those with HFpEF, depressive symptoms and engagement in physical activity were associated with a 78 % higher risk. Conclusions: Depressive symptoms and lack of physical activity predicted the combined endpoint of all-cause death or rehospitalization among patients with HFrEF, while depressive symptoms alone were the strongest predictor among patients with HFpEF.