Objective To explore the influencing factors of death anxiety and short-term prognosis in elderly patients with chronic cardiac insufficiency (ECCI).

Methods Seventy-nine patients with ECCI were selected as the study subjects, and were investigated by using the Basic Information Questionnaire, Death Anxiety Scale (T-DAS) assessment, and Family Caring Degree Index Questionnaire (APGAR) to collect clinically relevant information and assess short-term prognosis. The influencing factors of death anxiety and short-term prognosis of ECCI patients were analyzed by univariate analysis and binary logistic regression.

Results The incidence of death anxiety in 79 ECCI patients was 40.51% (32/79). Univariate and logistic regression analyses yielded that insomnia was an independent risk factor for death anxiety (P ＜ 0.05), and high personal monthly income was a protective factor for death anxiety (P ＜ 0.05). In terms of short-term prognosis, the differences in N-terminal B-type natriuretic peptide proteins (NT-proBNP) and thromboxane B2 (TXB2) were significant when comparing the poor prognosis group with the good prognosis group (P ＜ 0.05); The area under the curve (AUC) for ROC curve analysis of NT-proBNP and TXB2 were 0.7467 and 0.8984, respectively (P ＜ 0.05).

Conclusions The high incidence of death anxiety in ECCI patients is associated with low personal monthly income and insomnia, and NT-proBNP and TXB2 have a predictive value for short-term prognosis.