Hospitalizations in patients with heart failure: who and why.

H h a c i i o p r t e t p s c i n this issue of the Journal, Dunlay et al. (1) assessed the requency, reasons, and risk factors for hospitalizations in atients with heart failure (HF). The work is unique ecause they assessed the lifetime burden of hospitalizations n a population-based cohort of incident HF identified by iagnosis, not from time of HF hospitalization, which has reviously dominated our research and understanding. An dditional strength is the high rate of characterization of jection fraction. Placing this article in the context of revious studies highlights the crucial importance of 2 istinctions: 1) many hospitalizations in patients with HF re not “HF hospitalizations;” and 2) the number of ospitalizations is higher than the number of patients ospitalized, due to the “frequent flyer” cohort.