Authors
- Mario Udovičić — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-9912-2179
- Danijela Grizelj — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0002-8298-7974
- Mariam Samara — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-2384-273X
- Hrvoje Falak — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0002-6502-683X
- Ana Jordan — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-5610-6259
- Petra Vitlov — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-6983-1409
- Diana Rudan — University Hospital Dubrava, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-9473-2517
Keywords
atrial fibrillation, epidemiology, prevalence
DOI
https://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2021.65Full Text
Goal : The aim of this study was to evaluate the community-based prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in a geographically well-defined population in the central part of Croatia. Methods : We searched hospital electronic health records of Clinic of Internal Medicine (IMD) and Emergency Department (ED) of University Hospital Dubrava (UHD) for patients older than 20 years of age diagnosed with AF in the period from January 1, 2007 to January 1, 2017. We then eliminated all the patients who have died before 2017 or did not have residence within the official catchment area. Results : Of the 125 596 patients analyzed, 14 781 were diagnosed with AF; of these 5 086 were alive on January 1, 2017 and residing within the official catchment area of UHD, which meant that the overall prevalence of AF was 2.0%. The prevalence increased with age from 4.3% in patients over 50 years of age to 13.0% in those over 80 years. It was higher in men than in women in all age groups, while 90.8% of the population were at high risk of stroke (≥2 points) according to CHA2DS2-VASc score. Conclusion : Within our population, we identified a very high community-based prevalence of AF, and a very large portion of patients with indication for OAC prophylactic therapy of AF. The prevalence was strongly associated with increasing age and male gender. ( 1 )