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Abstract
Objective To evaluate whether baseline and changes in cardiovascular health (CVH) were related to incident atrial fibrillation (AF) risk in the elderly population.
Methods From the Korea National Health Insurance Service-Senior cohort, we included 208 598 participants without prior AF (median age: 70 (IQR 66–74) years; 90 916 (43.6%) men) who underwent national health check-ups between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2012. Using the six metrics of the American Heart Association, participants were categorised as having low, moderate and high CVH.
Results Over a median follow-up of 7.2 years, 7818 cases of incident AF occurred. In multivariable analysis, moderate (HR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.86 to 0.94) and high (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.73 to 0.91) CVH status at baseline were associated with a lower risk of incident AF. However, in 109 695 participants with changes in CVH between the first and second check-ups, the direction of change in CVH scores showed no consistent association with future AF incidence. In newly diagnosed participants with AF, the incidence of the composite outcome (stroke, major bleeding and all-cause death) decreased with every 1-point increase in the baseline CVH score (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.89 to 0.99).
Conclusions In the general elderly population, better baseline CVH metrics were associated with lower incident AF risk. In participants with newly diagnosed AF, better CVH was also associated with lower incidence of future composite outcomes. However, the direction of change in CVH status within 2 years showed an inconsistent influence on incident AF risk.
- atrial fibrillation
- risk factors
Data availability statement
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Data availability statement
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Footnotes
J-HL and P-SY contributed equally.
Contributors J-HL, P-SY and BJ participated in designing the work and statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. EJ and P-SY contributed to data collection. All authors were involved in interpretation of the results and revision for reviewer’s comment. All authors read and approved the manuscript before its submission.
Funding This study was supported by a research grant from the Korean Healthcare Technology R&D project funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare (HI15C1200, HC19C0130), and a CMB-Yuhan research grant of Yonsei University College of Medicine (6-2019-0124).
Competing interests BJ—speaker for Bayer, BMS/Pfizer, Medtronic and Daiichi-Sankyo, and research funds from Medtronic and Abbott. No fees are directly received personally.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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