Demographic change and its impact on the health-care budget for heart failure inpatients in Germany during 1995-2025

Abstract

Aims: Demographic change affects the health system in many countries. Heart failure is used as an example in demonstrating the effects of these changing demographics.

Methods: We analyzed trends for demographic change and their effects on heart failure and its costs over the period 1995-2025.

Results: Changing demographics are associated with higher treatment costs. The number of patients with heart failure is expected to increase by 61.8 % overall and as much as 74.6 % among the population aged over 65 years. The number of hospital admissions due to heart failure is forecast to increase to 448,752 in 2025. The cost of inpatient treatment will also rise by almost 50 % to around <euro> 1.80 billion in 2025.

Conclusion: It is important to reduce the number of inpatient cases; this can be achieved, for example, by the implementation of adequate guideline-oriented patient-care programs, as well as patient education for the improvement of therapy adherence.