United States: Researchers have found that the incidence of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, is, in fact, Yahoo life thrice as prevalent as earlier estimated, as reported by a new study that was published on Wednesday.
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A study done by a researcher from the University of California, San Francisco, stated that 10.5 million adults, or nearly five percent of the total adult population of the United States, are affected by A-fib.
What has the study found?
UCSF’s researchers identified nearly thirty million adults who had “acute or procedural care” in California from 2005 to 2019, and around 2 million of them had previously been diagnosed with A-fib.
The rate of diagnoses rose through the years – from close to 4.5 percent of the cases from 2005 to 2009 to 6.8 percent of the patients between the years 2015 and 2019.
The results were also standardized to achieve assured national samples, which enabled researchers to get an estimated number of at least 10.5 million A-fib-related cases across the country.
More about A-fib
A-fib is a major contributor to stroke; it increases the risk of developing heart failure, blood clots, chronic kidney disease, and dementia.
According to Dr. Gregory Marcus, who is a senior author of the study and cardiologist at UCSF Health, the researchers have suspected A-fib, which is a more commonly held occurrence than what has previously predicted, “but we were surprised by the large magnitude of the actual difference observed” in the study.
“These data also help to provide some comfort to the millions of patients contending with the disease, so they know they are not alone,” he said.
Along with that, Marcus also hoped the study’s findings would result in more allocations of resources in order to help A-fib patients.
He said, “For example, there is now strong evidence that physical activity can reduce the burden of this disease, and yet Medicare does not cover cardiac rehabilitation programs for atrial fibrillation,” Yahoo Life stated.
Why is there a rise in cases?
Experts believe that the uprise is due to numerous factors involving more cases as well as improved detection of the illness.
According to Dr. Paul Wang, director of the Stanford Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, “The longer people live with many chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, sleep apnea, and other medical problems, the more likely they are to develop A-fib.”
Moreover, as experts state, medical-grade monitors do monitor more cases of A-fib. However, smart wearables such as Apple Watches and Fitbits are bringing a higher number of cases to clinicians’ attention.
As per Wang, “A-fib is known to increase with age,” and “As the population ages, A-fib is expected to increase.”
How to reduce A-fib risk?
According to health experts, pursuing healthy habits lowers the chances of A-fib diagnosis.
As Wang said, the management of chronic conditions linked with developing A-fib may help. He added, “For example, treating diabetes and hypertension may reduce A-fib,” Yahoo Life reported.