Epidemiological aspects of atrial fibrillation

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia clinically relevant. In this project we studied the disease based on epidemiological characteristics. Articles from 1947 to April of 2013 were reviewed, matching “atrial fibrillation” and “epidemiology”, “screening”, “mortality”, “morbidity”, “risk factors” among others in an international database, taking into consideration impact factor and English language. Results are presented as following: Epidemiological Profile, that analyses prevalence and incidence of AF regarding to age, gender, risk factors and etiology; Morbimortality Profile, that investigates the most commonly associated diseases and their multivariate mortality rates; and Hospitalization Profile, that shows hospitalized AF patients’ characteristics and length of stay. Thus, it has been shown that: 1. The increase in life expectancy is accompanied by an increase in AF incidence. The prevalence is significantly higher in men and in older people; 2. Cardiovascular diseases are associated conditions that worsen the AF’ severity and mortality rates; 3. There was an increase in hospital expenses and in hospitalizations assigned to AF, in spite of a decrease in hospitalizations in general.