Study Reveals Atrial Fibrillation Primarily Increases Heart Failure Risk

Atrial fibrillation is a heart disorder in which an individual experiences irregular heartbeat due to the irregular beating of atrial chambers. It increases the lifetime risk of heart failure, stroke and other heart-related complications. But a recent study published in The BMJ journal has made it clear that atrial fibrillation mostly increases the risk of heart failure.  

This Danish, nationwide population-based study was mainly conducted to understand the changes in lifetime risks of complications caused by atrial fibrillation. In this research, almost 3.5 million individuals were involved and tracked from 2000 to 2022. These participated individuals were 45 years or older and did not have a history of atrial fibrillation. 

When researchers tracked these participants for almost 23 years, they noticed 362,721 participants were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and had no complications such as heart failure, stroke or heart attack. They continued tracking these participants until they were diagnosed with any of these complications.  

When researchers observed the collected data and tried to understand the risk of complications, they found that the risk of heart failure, stroke and heart attack was 41%, 21%, 12% respectively. It can be easily seen that the risk of heart failure was twice that of stroke and four times greater than that of heart attack. 

When they focused on the gender of individuals, they found men were at a higher lifetime risk of developing these complications as compared to women. The lifetime risk of heart failure was 44% for men and 33% for women. On the other hand, the lifetime risk of stroke was slightly lower in men than women as it was 21% and 23% respectively. 

In this research, there was no improvement in the lifetime risk of heart failure as it was 43% in 2000-2010 and 42% in 2011-22. Only the lifetime risk of stroke and heart attack was slightly decreased.  

As the results of this research show that atrial fibrillation mostly increases the lifetime risk of heart failure, healthcare professionals should make some effective strategies to reduce it. The findings also revealed that men have a higher risk of developing heart-related complications, so healthcare professionals should be very careful while treating them after diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. 

Reference Link:  

Nicklas Vinter et al, Temporal trends in lifetime risks of atrial fibrillation and its complications between 2000 and 2022: Danish, nationwide, population based cohort study, BMJ (2024).  

DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-077209