Temporal Evolution of the Profile of Patients Hospitalized with Heart Failure (2000–2022)

<b>Background:</b> The clinical characteristics of patients who have a first episode of congestive heart failure (CHF) may have changed in recent years. <b>Methods:</b> A retrospective cohort study was performed on 19,796 patients discharged from medical departments with a diagnosis of CHF between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2022. Data were drawn from two data sets of the Minimum Basic Data Set-Hospital Data Set (MBDS) of the Lucus Augusti University Hospital (Spain): hospitalizations and patients. Patient characteristics (including the period of their first admission) and the association rules between diseases determined using the Apriori algorithm were studied in five consecutive time periods. <b>Results:</b> The general characteristics of patients on first admission for CHF changed over time. There were increases in mean age (75.9 ± SD 11.2 vs. 81.6 ± SD 11.5 years; <i>p</i> < 0.0001), the proportion of women (48.3% vs. 51.4; <i>p</i> = 0.0001), the number of acute diseases (1.1 ± SD 1.4 to 2.7 ± SD 2.5; <i>p</i> < 0.0001), and the number of chronic diseases (3.6 ± SD 1.9 to 6.5 ± SD 2.6); <i>p</i> < 0.001). Accordingly, the median number of diagnoses (from 3 to 7) and itemsets per patient increased (mean number of items 1.75 vs. 3.4; <i>p</i> < 0.0001), and the associations of diseases leading to CHF became more complex. <b>Conclusions:</b> This single-center study shows that in the last two decades, the characteristics of patients with a first hospital admission for CHF have changed. Patients are older, there is a predominance of women, and they have a greater number of acute and chronic concomitant diseases, making their clinical management more difficult.