New research has revealed that a rapid, irregular heartbeat condition known as atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) is three times more common than previously thought.
United States-based research, led by the University of California San Francisco, showed the condition impacted around five percent of the population.
About a third of people with A-Fib will experience a stroke without proper treatment.
The research report said A-Fib had been growing over the past decade off the back of the aging population, and increased hypertension, diabetes and obesity.
Study first author Jean Jacques Noubiap said A-Fib doubled the risk of human mortality and lowered the quality of life for people with the condition.
“Fortunately, atrial fibrillation is preventable, and early detection and appropriate treatment can substantially reduce its adverse outcomes,” he said.
UCSF investigators reviewed the medical records of nearly 30 million adult patients who received some form of acute or procedural care in California from 2005 to 2019.
About two million had been diagnosed with A-Fib, and the numbers grew over time, rising from 4.49 percent between 2005 and 2009 to 6.82 percent between 2015 and 2019.
During the study timeframe, A-Fib patients skewed younger, were less likely to be female and more likely to have hypertension and diabetes.
“A-Fib has a broad spectrum of complications from shortness of breath and light-headedness to blood clots, stroke and even heart failure,” the study report said.
“Studies have shown that people with A-Fib are up to five times more likely to have a stroke.”
Study senior and corresponding author Gregory Marcus said digital technologies may reveal the condition was even more common than the current analysis indicated.
“With the growing use of consumer wearables designed to detect atrial fibrillation combined with safer and more effective means to treat it, this current prevalence of atrial fibrillation in health care settings may soon be dwarfed by future health care utilization that will occur due to the disease,” he said.
The full report is on the UCSF website.
