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. 2020 Jul 23;36(6):974-981.
doi: 10.1002/joa3.12409. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Weight, height, weight change, and risk of incident atrial fibrillation in middle-aged men and women

Cecilia Johansson  1 , Marcus M Lind  1 , Marie Eriksson  2 , Lars Johansson  1
Affiliations

Weight, height, weight change, and risk of incident atrial fibrillation in middle-aged men and women

Cecilia Johansson et al. J Arrhythm. .

Abstract

Background: Anthropometric factors are reported to be risk factors for atrial fibrillation (AF), but it is unclear whether weight change in mid-life is associated with AF. We aimed to study the possible associations of weight, height, and weight change with the risk of incident AF in men and women.

Methods: Our study cohort included 108 417 persons (51% women) who participated in a population-based health examination in northern Sweden at 30, 40, 50, or 60 years of age. The health examination included weight and height measurement and collection of data regarding cardiovascular risk factors. Within this cohort, 40 275 participants underwent two health examinations with a 10-year interval. We identified cases with a first-ever diagnosis of AF through the Swedish National Patient Registry.

Results: During a total follow-up of 1 469 820 person-years, 5154 participants developed incident AF. The mean age at inclusion was 46.3 years, and mean age at AF diagnosis was 66.6 years. After adjustment for potential confounders, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and body surface area (BSA) were positively associated with risk of incident AF in both men and women. Among participants who underwent two health examinations 10 years apart, 1142 persons developed AF. The mean weight change from baseline was a gain of 4.8%. Weight gain or weight loss was not significantly associated with risk of incident AF.

Conclusions: Height, weight, BMI, and BSA showed positive associations with risk of incident AF in both men and women. Midlife weight change was not significantly associated with AF risk.

Keywords: atrial fibrillation; body height; body weight; weight gain; weight loss.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Illustration of the risk of atrial fibrillation in categories of weight change, stratified by sex‐specific tertiles of height. Analysis adjusted for age, sex, s–cholesterol, education level, smoking, history of myocardial infarction, hypertension, diabetes, alcohol use, and physical activity, obtained at the second health examination. Participants in the lowest height tertile with stable weight were used as a reference group. Associations shown as hazard ratios. Associations between weight change and risk of AF are shown as black diamonds for participants in the lowest height tertile, as dark gray squares for participants in the middle height tertile, and as light gray triangles for participants in the highest height tertile
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