2021 Volume 36 Issue 4 Pages 539-544
Objective: To determine age-specific prevalence and incidence rates of atrial fibrillation (AF) in a general Japanese population.
Subjects and Methods: Age-specific (30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years) prevalence rates of AF were determined using a dataset of 264,029 subjects (119,595 females and 144,434 males), who underwent an annual health checkup in 2018. Furthermore, age-specific incidence rates of AF (the same age category) were determined using a dataset of 212,433 individuals (94,252 females and 118,181 males) without prevalent AF, who underwent at least one survey out of the subsequent four surveys in the 2013 annual health checkup. The observation period (person-years) for each individual was determined by calculating the period from the date of the initial survey to the first date of AF incidence. Subjects who never experienced AF incidence were administratively censored at the last survey.
Results: Age-specific (30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years) prevalence rates of AF were 0.01%, 0.02%, 0.08%, 0.44%, 1.31%, and 3.52%, respectively, in females and 0.06%, 0.23%, 0.99%, 2.97%, 5.61%, and 8.10%, respectively, in males.
There were 350 female and 1,214 male incident AF cases during the period (mean period = 4.2 years). Age-specific (30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, and 80–89 years) incidence rates of AF were 0.07%, 0.03%, 0.48%, 1.06%, 3.06%, and 7.32%, respectively, in females and 0.24%, 0.76%, 2.41%, 4.78%, 7.45%, and 10.22%, respectively, in males.
Conclusions: We determined the age-specific prevalence and incidence rates of AF in Japanese people aged between 30 and 89 years. Our results indicated the need to encourage AF patients to visit clinics for decreasing AF-associated burdens.
