Association between the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and aspects of health status: a Danish
cross-sectional study
Sammanfattning
Background: Caring for patients living with atrial fibrillation (AF) is expected to be an increasing
challenge for the healthcare sector in the future. Inconclusive results on self-reported health-related
quality of life and health status in patients living with AF have previously been reported, ranging from
being similar to those observed in patients who have sustained and survived a myocardial infarction
to not being different from those of healthy subjects. In these studies, gender differences were not
taken into account.
Aim and objective: To investigate the association between the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and self-
reported health status.
Design: An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the Danish Diet,
Cancer and Health cohort. Information on health status was obtained using the Danish version of the
Short Form 36 version 2 questionnaire. The analyses were stratified on gender. In adjusted analysis,
we considered potential confounding from comorbidity expressed by the Charlson Comorbidity Index
and effect modification by age.
Ethical approval: The local ethical committees of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities
(Approval no.: (KF) 01-345/93) approved the study.
Results: We included 42 598 participants of whom 873 had a diagnosis of AF and/or atrial flutter. We
found a lower adjusted physical component score among AF patients. No systematic differences in
the mental component score (MCS) were observed.
Conclusion: Participants diagnosed with AF report a clinically and statistically significantly lower
physical health component score. No systematic differences in the MCS were found when comparing
with the remaining participants in the cohort. As healthcare professionals caring for patients living
with AF are not always expecting patients living with AF to experience a burden from their disease,
the individual patients' experience of their situation, feelings, preferences, symptoms and needs
leading to physical limitations should always be articulated. Published by arrangement with John
Wiley & Sons.