Incidence of and risk factors for atrial fibrillation in screening test for 40 years and older adults

Jeong, Joon Hoon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia that is a potent independent risk factor for stroke. The incidence of AF increases with age and most affected people have underlying cardiac disease. This study aimed to describe the incidence of and risk factors for AF in Korean.
METHODS
In this study, 14,540 adults (M/F=6,573/7,967) > or = 40 years old were received screening test for general health between April 2000 and December 2000. Participants answered questionnaires and underwent examinations that included blood pressure, electrocardiogram (ECG), total cholesterol and fasting glucose. Data analysis was done by database statistics (dBSTAT) for windows program.
RESULTS
The incidence of AF is 0.7% (106/14,540) in people older than 40 years and 2.1% (60/2,876) in those older than 65 years. Approximately 56.6% (60/106) of individuals with AF are older than 65 years. The incidence of AF is higher at all age group in men than in women. Also, the incidence of AF is most highest in people older than 80 years. Male sex, old age (> or = 65 years), hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), stroke, and cardiac disease were associated with an increased risk of AF. Hypercholesterolemia, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and hyperthyroidism were not associated with an increased risk of AF. The most potent risk factor of AF is electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (ECG-LVH) in this study.
CONCLUSION
The incidence of AF is 0.7% in those older than 40 years and 2.1% in those older than 65 years. The incidence of AF is 3-fold in men (1.2%) than in women (0.4%). Reversible risk factors of AF are hypertension, DM, LVH, stroke, and cardiac disease in this study. So, control of blood pressure and glucose may be important in preventing the development of AF.