Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculator

The heart failure life expectancy calculator is a simple, yet effective, tool for predicting the 1-year and 3-year survival odds of someone with congestive heart failure.

In the article below, we will focus on congestive heart failure/CHF prognosis, the estimates on how long can you live with congestive heart failure, and the average CHF life expectancy for a given stage of the disease.

Our tool is based on a research conducted by the Meta-Analysis Global Group in Chronic Heart Failure (MAGGIC) lead by a professor Stuart Pocock, PhD.

To find a person's survival odds with our heart failure life expectancy calculator, you'll need the exact values of:

1. The patient's sex. It is autosaved and locked. It means you won't have to enter it every time you visit the tool, nor will it change with other calculations.

2. The age of the patient in years. It is also autosaved for later visits.

3. The height of the patient. Select your preferred unit first, then enter a value.

4. The patient's weight: you may choose the unit of your liking if the default doesn't suit your needs.

5. If you enter the weight and height, the BMI (given in kg/m²) is auto-calculated. But you can input the BMI in combination with weight or height.

6. The creatinine levels — creatinine is a product of the muscles' metabolism. It is found at increased levels when the kidneys do not work properly.

7. Ejection fraction (EF) — the amount of blood pushed out of the heart during systole, out of the total amount of blood in the heart.

8. Systolic blood pressure (sBP) — the larger value of the blood pressure measurement made during a routine blood pressure check-up, given in mmHg.

9. The result will be displayed as Risk score, 1-year survival probability and 3-years survival probability.

In addition, you need to answer the following questions as they impact the results:

1. Does your patient take angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEi), for example, captopril, or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB, sartans)?

2. Does your patient take beta-blockers, for example, propranolol, metoprolol, bisoprolol?

3. Was your patients heart failure diagnosed ≥ 18 months ago?

4. What's your patient's NYHA class?

5. Does your patient suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?

6. Does your patient still smoke? Or have they managed to quit?

7. Does your patient suffer from diabetes?

Answering each question as yes or no will keep altering the results. So, keep an eye out for the changes each answer reflects.

Keep reading to learn more about life expectancy with congestive heart failure.

The congestive heart failure lifespan depends on many variables, such as the cause of heart failure, its severity, and other comorbidities.
The survival rates for those affected in the general population are:

• 1-year: 81.3%;
• 5-years: 51.5%; and
• 10-years: 29.5%.

There are 6 million people alive in the US that suffer from this disease, and almost 1 million in the UK. The data shown above tells us that only a half of these people will survive the next 5 years.

❤️ A heart transplant, being the ultimate treatment for such a disease, prolongs the estimated survival. 20 years after a transplant, around 21% of patients are still alive. (Some hospitals report the survival rate of even 50% during that time!)

There's a special tool, SAPS II calculator for assessing the mortality rate of heart failure patients admitted to the ICU.

The ACC/AHA Guidelines specify four stages of HF, indirectly determining how long can a person live with congestive heart failure, depending on the given phase of the disease.

Progressing through the above stages is exaggerated by:

• Lack of treatment;
• Heart events, such as heart attack;
• Improper diet;
• Age; and
• General health (units of alcohol consumed, smoking, exercise, etc).

We can slow down the progression of the disease by:

• Maintaining the correct blood pressure; and
• Keeping our heart healthy by meeting certain target heart rates close to our maximum heart rate during exercise and everyday activities. Check the max heart rate calculator and heart rate calculator

Also, you may be interested in our qp/qs calculator which helps in determining the magnitude of a cardiac shunt.

Systolic heart failure is an insufficiency of a heart caused by the malfunction of its left ventricle. This kind of HF is characterized by a low ejection fraction (EF), also taken into account in this heart failure life expectancy calculator.

EF is given in percent, and should be equal to around 50-70%. Mortality increases as the ejection fraction value decreases. The smaller the EF, the shorter the estimated survival.

Unfortunately, plenty of studies proved that the mortality in patients with systolic heart failure and low EF is higher than in those with preserved EF.

For example: 1 year mortality rate for low EF = 26%, and for the high EF = 22%.

If you'd like to check out how our heart failure life expectancy calculator works, here's the method we used. Add all of the points scored for each separate variable together for the final result.

We based our calculations on the findings of The Meta-Analysis Global Group in Chronic Heart Failure (MAGGIC), published by Pocock, et al. and Freed, et al.

I'm Łucja Zaborowska, a dedicated medical professional and researcher. My blend of academic excellence, research dedication, and passion for research, evidenced by my four-plus years of experience, showcases me as dedicated, resourceful, and dependable.

Enhancing patient understanding and engagement, supporting clinical decision-making for health care providers, and research and epidemiology are some of the driving reasons that motivated me to make a complex and serious tool such as the heart failure life expectancy calculator.

We ensure our tools are based on authentic information and proper research. After an expert makes the calculator, another expert in the field reviews it thoroughly. Then, a native language speaker proofreads the content, ensuring further refinement; only then is the tool released for our users. To learn more about our commitment to quality, please refer to our Editorial Policies page.

Life expectancy in heart failure for women is slightly longer according to MAGGIC meta-analysis. In this method, more points equal a worse prognosis, and male patients get an extra point.
General, non-gender-specific survival rates for heart failure are:

• 1-year - 81.3%;
• 5-years 51.5%; and
• 10 years 29.5%

The 1-year survival rate for NYHA III heart failure is 85%-90%, and the 10-year survival rate is ~30%.

A diagnosis of congestive heart failure must always be made by a physician. Doctors first take a detailed medical history and run a basic physical examination. Then, to confirm the diagnosis, they use a variety of tests, including blood tests, ECG, echocardiography, or even a CT scan or heart biopsy.

Preventing congestive heart failure means leading a healthy lifestyle. Some useful tips:

1. Do a regular physician check-up.
2. Don't neglect any chronic conditions, even if you don't feel symptoms.
3. Maintain a healthy body weight.
4. Eat a healthy, plant-based, diverse diet.
5. Move a lot, practice exercise regularly.
6. Quit smoking and drinking if you do (1-2% of people who drink alcohol excessively will develop heart failure solely because of alcohol use).