Effectiveness of the frailty index in predicting short-term and long-term mortality risk in patients with chronic heart failure

•Frailty was diagnosed in 30.09 % of older chronic HF patients.•Frailty is associated with a higher risk of short- and long-term mortality in older patients with chronic HF. This study explored the effectiveness of a newly constructed frailty index (FI) for predicting short-term and long-term mortality in patients with chronic heart failure (HF). This retrospective study included inpatients aged ≥60 years diagnosed with chronic HF at a teaching hospital in western China. General data on the patients were collected from the electronic medical record system between January 1, 2017, and July 7, 2022, and death information was obtained from follow-up calls made from July 31, 2022, to August 1, 2022. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to analyze the accuracy of the FI in predicting death in patients with chronic HF. Logistic regression (during hospitalization and within 30 days after discharge) and Cox regression (within 180 days after discharge and one year after discharge) analyses were used to assess associations between frailty and mortality risk in elderly patients with chronic HF. A total of 432 patients with chronic HF were included in the study. The non-frail group had FI values