Thousands of elderly patients with heart failure are missing out on life-saving medication because the condition is not being documented in their medical records, a large Australian study has found.

In an observational study of de-identified health data from 1.93 million patients (median age 72) in general practice between July 2013 and June 2018, researchers sought to determine the ‘real-world’ state of heart failure in primary care and whether it was being adequately managed.

They identified more than 21,800 patients who met the criteria for ‘definite’ or ‘probable’ heart failure, and a further 34,400 as having ‘possible’ heart failure.

Findings from SHAPE (Study of Heart Failure in the Australian Primary Care), presented at the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand annual conference in Adelaide over the weekend, showed that almost half of these patients (45%) did not have a formal diagnosis of the condition documented.