Mortality Risk Differs Between Men and Women with Afib

Women with atrial fibrillation (AF) are at a higher risk of cardiovascular-related mortality and morbidity than men with the condition, according to a recent study.

Previous studies have returned conflicting data on the relationship between AF and mortality risk in women.
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In order to examine this difference, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 30 studies with 4,371,714 participants. All studies had a minimum of 50 participants with AF and 50 without, and reported on the association between AF and all cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, stroke, cardiac events, and heart failure.

Overall, AF was associated with higher risk of all cause mortality and a significantly stronger risk of stroke, cardiovascular mortality, cardiac events, and heart failure in women compared with men.

“Therefore, it might be appropriate for clinicians to consider more aggressive treatment of risk factors in women with AF as they seem to be at higher proportional risk of death and cardiovascular disease,” they concluded.

“Future research should be encouraged to determine the underlying causes of the observed sex differences.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Emdin CA, Wong CX, Hsiao AJ, et al. Atrial fibrillation as risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death in women compared with men: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. BMJ. 2016 January 19 [epub ahead of print]. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h7013.