INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Heart failure patients have high levels of frailty 
and dependence. Our aim was to determine the impact of frailty and depressive 
symptoms on the 1-year mortality rate and the rate of hospitalization for heart 
failure during a follow-up period of 1 year.
METHODS: All patients underwent geriatric evaluation, and frailty and depressive 
symptoms were identified. The study included 622 patients (72.5% male; median 
age, 68 years; 92% in New York Heart Association class II or III; and median 
ejection fraction, 30%).
RESULTS: During follow-up, 60 patients (9.5%) died and 101 (16.2%) were 
hospitalized for heart failure. Overall, 39.9% of patients exhibited frailty, 
while 25.2% had depressive symptoms. There were significant associations between 
mortality at 1 year and the presence of frailty (16.9% vs. 4.8%; P< .001) and 
depressive symptoms (15.3% vs. 7.7%; P=.006). There was also a significant 
relationship between heart failure hospitalization and the presence of frailty 
(20.5% vs. 13.3%; P=.01). No relationship was found between heart failure 
hospitalization and depressive symptoms. Frailty was an independent predictor of 
mortality but not of hospitalization.
CONCLUSIONS: Univariate analysis demonstrated significant relationships between 
frailty and depressive symptoms and mortality at 1 year. In addition, there was 
a significant relationship between frailty and the need for heart failure 
hospitalization. However, only frailty showed prognostic value to predict 
mortality, which was independent of other variables strongly associated to 
outcome.