J Korean Acad Fam Med.  2001 Feb;22(2):178-183.

Prevalence of atrial fibrillation in general population in Kangwon Province

• Jang MK
• Lee JY
• Kim SG
• Cho KH
• Yang YS
• Yoon DS
• Chae SH

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Atrial fibrillation is the commonest arrhythmia seen in clinical practice. However, there have been no epidemiologic data on its prevalence in general population of Korea. We performed this study to investigate the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in Korea.
METHODS
From March 1, 1999 to July 31, 2000, Kangwon Branch, Korea Association of Health (KAH) parformed electrocardiograms to investigate the health status in the general public in Kangwon Province. We analyzed these data by of chi square(2) test.
RESULTS
A total of 45,133 persons participated in the health screening performed by KAH. The number of persons above 40 years old were 13,768, with men and women 6,367 (46.2%) and 7,401 (53.8%)respectively. Prevalence among those above 40 years old was 0.72% and the prevalence among men, 0.96% (61 persons) was significantly higher than that of women, 0.51% (38 persons)(p<0.01). In the group above 60 years old with the prevalence of 1.24%, a similar phenomenon was observed with 1.57% (40 persons) in men and 0.97% (29 persons) in women (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
Prevalence of atrial fibrillation became higher as age increased, specifically in persons older than 40 years.

Keyword

atrial fibrillation; prevalence; Korea

MeSH Terms

Adult
Arrhythmias, Cardiac
Atrial Fibrillation*
Electrocardiography
Female
Gangwon-do*
Humans
Korea
Male
Mass Screening
Middle Aged
Prevalence*