Needs for Improving Awareness of Atrial Fibrillation among Corporate Workers

Abstract

 Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, and affected individuals experience reductions in quality of life and functional status. Patients with AF show a higher risk of stroke than patients without AF. Enhanced recognition of AF is needed in occupational health to decrease the number of patients with cerebral infarction caused by AF. We therefore performed a questionnaire survey of AF awareness and correlations between AF and cerebral infarction in a sample of our workers.
 Material and Methods: A questionnaire about AF was administered to employees >50 years old working at the Hirai offices of Lion Corporation.
 Results: The majority of employees knew about AF (72.5%), but fewer were aware of asymptomatic AF (46.3%) and the tendency for AF to result in thrombosis formation (43.8%). The proportion of employees who knew that AF is a risk factor for cerebral infarction was 54%, whereas only 33.8% knew that medical treatment can prevent cerebral infarction in individuals with AF.
 Conclusion: The present survey showed a low level of awareness of asymptomatic AF and anticoagulant pharmacotherapy to prevent stroke. Detecting asymptomatic AF and paroxysmal AF in annual health examinations is difficult. Preventing the occurrence of ischemic stroke requires dissemination of knowledge about AF and that measuring one’s own pulse rate is useful for early detection of AF. Lectures in occupational health provide a good opportunity to enhance information about AF and stroke, and might contribute to preventing severe cerebral infarction due to AF.