Prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the general population of Japan: an analysis based on periodic health examination.
BACKGROUND
The mortality and morbidity rates of various cardiovascular diseases differ between Western countries and Japan. The age- and gender-specific prevalence rate of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the general population of Japan was determined using the data from periodic health examinations in 2003.


METHODS
Data of 630,138 subjects aged 40 years or more (47% were men and 34% were employees of companies and local governments) were collected from northern to southern Japan. The prevalence of diagnosed AF in each 10-year age group of both men and women was determined. Based on these prevalence rates and the Registry of Residents, the number of people having AF in Japan was estimated.


RESULTS
The prevalence rate of AF increased as both male and female subjects aged, and it was 4.4% for men but only 2.2% for women aged 80 years or more (p<0.0001). As a whole, the AF prevalence of men was three times that of women (1.35 versus 0.43%, p<0.0001). There may be approximately 716,000 people (95% confidence interval (CI), 711,000-720,000) with AF in Japan, an overall prevalence of 0.56%. The number of people having AF was projected to be 1.034 (95% CI, 1.029-1.039) million, an overall prevalence of 1.09%, in 2050.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of AF increased in Japan as the population aged, as in Western countries. The overall prevalence of AF in Japan is approximately two-thirds of that in the USA. The projected increase in the number of people having AF is modest in Japan in 2050.
Inoue
Hiroshi
H
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Toyama, Sugitani, Toyama, Japan. hiroshi@med.u-toyama.ac.jp
Fujiki
Akira
A
Origasa
Hideki
H
Ogawa
Satoshi
S
Okumura
Ken
K
Kubota
Isao
I
Aizawa
Yoshifusa
Y
Yamashita
Takeshi
T
Atarashi
Hirotsugu
H
Horie
Minoru
M
Ohe
Tohru
T
Doi
Yoshinori
Y
Shimizu
Akihiko
A
Chishaki
Akiko
A
Saikawa
Tetsunori
T
Yano
Katsusuke
K
Kitabatake
Akira
A
Mitamura
Hideo
H
Kodama
Itsuo
I
Kamakura
Shiro
S
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D044382:Population Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors