Abstract 9757: Frequency of Atrial Fibrillation in a Contemporary Elderly Primary Care Population: A Vital-af Trial Study

• Published in: Circulation (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2021-11, Vol.144 (Suppl_1), p.A9757-A9757
• Main Authors: Khurshid, Shaan, Ashburner, Jeffrey M, Chang, Yuchiao, Trisini Lipsanopoulos, Ana T, Borowsky, Leila H, Guan, Wyliena, Ellinor, Patrick T, McManus, David D, Atlas, Steven, Singer, Daniel, Lubitz, Steven A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0009-7322; 1524-4539
• DOI: 10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.9757

IntroductionReliable estimates of atrial fibrillation (AF) frequency can inform our understanding of population disease burden and shape interventions to reduce AF-related morbidity. MethodsWe quantified the prevalence and incidence of AF in VITAL-AF (NCT035115057), a cluster-randomized trial of AF screening using single-lead handheld electrocardiograms within 16 primary care practices affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital. Potential AF events were identified using the electronic health record. AF events satisfying a high specificity electronic algorithm for prevalent AF (positive predictive value 98.4%) were classified as prevalent AF, while all other potential AF events (including all incident AF events) were manually adjudicated. We calculated AF prevalence and incidence overall and within clinical strata, among individuals who were not screened. ResultsOf 18,812 individuals enrolled but not screened between 7/31/2018-10/8/2019 (mean age 74.6±7.2 years, 56.3% women), 2,503 (13.3%) had prevalent AF. AF prevalence was particularly high among individuals aged ≥85 years (29.1%) and individuals with heart failure (43.4%). The AF incidence rate among 16,309 individuals without prevalent AF was 20.1 per 1,000 person-years (95% CI 20.9-26.4). AF incidence also increased markedly with age (e.g., 13.6 at ages 65-69 to 37.1 at ages ≥85 years, p