Atrial fibrillation prevalence, incidence and risk of stroke and all-cause death among Chinese.
BACKGROUND
We investigated atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence, incidence and the risk of stroke and all-cause death because little is known about AF risk among ethnic Chinese.


METHODS
We conducted a community-based prospective cohort study among 3560 participants. Prevalent and incident AF was documented by using the 12-lead ECG in baseline and serial follow-ups, and the stroke and all-cause death events were ascertained.


RESULTS
Overall prevalence rates of AF in the cohort were 1.4% in men and 0.7% in women. Incidence rates of AF were 1.68 per 1000 person-years for men and 0.76 per 1000 person-years for women. During a median 13.8 years' follow-up, we documented 208 cases of stroke and 776 deaths. As compared with those without AF, participants with AF had nearly 4 times the age, gender-adjusted risk of stroke (relative risk [RR], 3.87, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.12-7.15), and twice the risk of death associated with all causes (RR, 2.23, 95% CI, 1.52-3.27). Further adjustment for body mass index, lifestyle factors, socioeconomic status and clinical diseases slightly attenuated these risks. In addition, after adjusting for echocardiographic measures, the following risks remained significant: the multivariate RRs were 2.90 (95% CI, 1.28-6.59) for risk of stroke and 2.05 (95% CI, 1.27-3.32) for risk of all-cause death among participants with AF.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data demonstrate that AF is a significant risk factor for stroke and all-cause death for the Chinese.
Chien
Kuo-Liong
KL
The Institute of Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Su
Ta-Chen
TC
Hsu
Hsiu-Ching
HC
Chang
Wei-Tien
WT
Chen
Pei-Chung
PC
Chen
Ming-Fong
MF
Lee
Yuan-Teh
YT
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D020521:Stroke / Q000208:ethnology*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology