By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Physician Law Weekly -- New research on Heart Disorders and Diseases - Atrial Fibrillation is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Winston Salem, North Carolina, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Whether smoking increases the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) remains debatable due to inconsistent reports. We examined the association between smoking and incident AF in 11,047 participants from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study, one of the largest biracial, population-based cohort studies in the USA.”
The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Wake Forest University, “Baseline (2003-2007) cigarette smoking status and amount (pack-years) were self-reported. Incident AF was determined by electrocardiography and history of a prior physician diagnosis at a follow-up examination conducted after a median of 10.6 years. During follow-up, 954 incident AF cases were identified; 9.5% in smokers vs. 7.8% in nonsmokers; p< 0.001. In a model adjusted for socio-demographics, smoking (ever vs. never) was associated with a 15% increased risk of AF [OR (95%CI): 1.15(1.00,1.31)], but this association was no longer significant after further adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors [OR (95% CI): 1.12 (0.97, 1.29)]. However, heterogeneities in the association were observed among subgroups; the association was stronger in young vs. old participants [OR (95%CI): 1.31 (1.03, 1.67) vs. 0.99 (0.83-1.18) respectively; interaction p-value = 0.005] and in those with vs. without prior cardiovascular disease [OR (95%CI): 1.18 (0.90, 1.56) vs. 1.06 (0.90, 1.25) respectively; interaction p-value 0.0307]. Also, the association was significant in blacks but not in whites [OR (95%CI): 1.51 (1.12, 2.05) vs. 0.99 (0.84, 1.16), respectively], but the interaction p-value did not reach statistical significance (interaction p-value = 0.65).”
According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The association between smoking and AF is possibly mediated by a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in smokers, but there is marked heterogeneity in the strength of this association among subgroups which may explain the conflicting results in prior studies.”
For more information on this research see: Smoking and risk of atrial fibrillation in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. Journal of Cardiology , 2018;71(1-2):113-117. Journal of Cardiology can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of Cardiology - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-cardiology/)
Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting E.Z. Soliman, Wake Forest Sch Med, Epidemiol Cardiol Res Center EPICARE, Dept. of Epidemiol & Prevent, Winston Salem, NC, United States. Additional authors for this research include C.D. Mosley, W.T. O’Neal, S.E. Judd, L.A. McClure, V.J. Howard, G. Howard and M.I. Ahmad.
The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjcc.2017.07.014. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.
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CITATION: (2018-04-25), Findings from Wake Forest University Update Understanding of Atrial Fibrillation [Smoking and risk of atrial fibrillation in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study], Physician Law Weekly, 189, ISSN: 1551-5303, BUTTER® ID: 015527069
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