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Background: Data regarding the influence of depression on outcome in chronic heart failure are conflicting and neglect possible gender differences. Aims: To investigate prevalence and prognostic importance of depression in a cohort of patients with symptomatic heart failure and to compare findings in males and females. Methods: Depression was measured at study entry using a self-reported 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in 231 consecutive outpatients. The median follow-up time was 986 (IQR = 664-1120) days. Results: The prevalence of suspected major depression was 13% (minor depression, 17%) and was not different between the sexes. Major (but not minor) depression was associated with an increased mortality risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.3, 95% confidence interval = 1.8-6.1, p b 0.001). This relationship remained significant after adjustment for other prognostically relevant factors as age, sex, heart failure aetiology, degree and type of left ventricular dysfunction, and New York Heart Association functional class. However, testing the effect of the interaction between gender and depression failed to reach significance (p = 0.37). Conclusion: Our data confirm a high prevalence of depression in chronic heart failure. Further, they prove an independent prognostic impact of major, but not minor, depression. Possible gender differences regarding the prognostic impact of depression require further investigation in a larger patient cohort.

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Patients' health-related quality of life is increasingly being included as an additional endpoint when evaluating the treatment of chronic heart failure. Although generic self-report instruments measuring health-related quality of life are available, there is a lack of disease-specific instruments covering various dimensions of quality of life with high reliability, validity and sensitivity to chance. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the German version of a new heart failure-specific quality of life measure, the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). The sample consisted of 233 consecutively recruited outpatients of a university department in Germany. Test-retest-reliability was high (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.93 for both the Functional State and the Clinical Summary total scores). Construct validity was demonstrated with strong correlations to respective subscales of the SF-36. Known groups validity was shown by both statistically and clinically significant differences between NYHA classes. The examination of sensitivity to change yielded promising results. The questionnaire was well accepted by the participating patients. The KCCQ proved to be a reliable and valid self-report instrument for measuring disease-specific quality of life in chronic heart failure.