Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2005
Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) is a disease of older people. The prevalence of the disease increases with age, reaching over 10% in those aged 80 and above. Not only does heart failure carry a burden of mortality worse than many cancers, it also severely impairs function and quality of life and is a leading cause of hospitalization in older people. Heart failure cost the British National Health Service £360 million in 1990–91; the cost is estimated to have doubled in the last decade.