Where does this news come from?
We speak of heart failure when your heart is no longer pumping powerfully enough. It affects 1 to 2% of the adult population, especially in old age.
Danish researchers investigated to what extent the covid vaccination affects the risk of the following complications in people with known heart failure (1):
- premature death
- worsening of heart failure
- thromboembolisms (blood clots)
- heart muscle inflammation
To investigate this, they used a Danish database containing the health data of the entire population:
- From this they collected the data of 101,786 people with an average age of 74, who had had heart failure for an average of 4.1 years.
- They divided these into two groups: they compared the data of 50,893 people in 2019, i.e. before the covid vaccination, with the data of a comparable group in 2021, after the covid vaccination:
- The probability of dying within 90 days was:
- 2.6% in the 2019 group;
- 2.2% in the 2021 group.
- The difference is significant: it shows that the mortality risk after vaccination is smaller.
- The probability of dying within 90 days was:
- Further analysis showed:
- no worsening of heart failure symptoms
- no increase in thromboembolic processes (blood clots)
- no more heart infections in the vaccinated group compared to the unvaccinated group.
The scientists conclude that the covid vaccination is certainly safe for people with heart failure, and rather protective.
Bron
(1) Sindet-Pedersen, F. Michalik, J. Emanuel Strange, D. et al. Risk of worsening heart failure and all-cause mortality following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in patients with heart failure: a Danish nationwide real-world safety study. ESC Congress 2022 – Barcelona, Spain 26–29 August 2022
How should you interpret this news?
Only a summary of this study has been published. As a result, we have no insight into details. The study establishes an association between covid vaccination and a lower risk of death in older individuals with heart failure.
The most obvious explanation is the following: vaccination greatly reduces the risk of serious covid-19.
- When older persons with heart failure contract a serious infection, such as covid-19, they are at high risk of death.
- This is due to their double vulnerability (age and chronic heart disease).
- Thanks to vaccination, the risk of serious covid-19 is greatly reduced.
- This also reduces the risk of premature death.
A similar finding happened before for flu vaccination:
- In a study of 5,129 people with heart failure, half were vaccinated against flu and half were not.
- All-cause mortality was lower in the vaccinated group during the flu season compared to the unvaccinated group (2).
Influenza also increases the risk of death in vulnerable people:
- On average, 1 in 1,000 flu patients develop a serious complication that requires hospitalization (3).
- 6% of those people die, mostly elderly and frail people (4).
- Thanks to flu vaccination, a large proportion of people with heart failure are spared from severe flu.
- This also prevents them from suffering a serious complication that can lead to premature death.
Conclusion
Heart failure, a condition in which your heart loses strength, mainly affects older people. It makes them extra vulnerable to complications when they contract a serious infection. New research shows that individuals with heart failure who received the covid vaccine have a lower risk of premature death compared to unvaccinated individuals with heart failure. Most likely because they contract covid-19 much less often, which in their case increases the chance of a bad outcome. Older people with heart failure who were vaccinated against flu were also found to be less likely to die prematurely.