Hospital admissions for a primary diagnosis of atrial fibrillation in the United States increased significantly from 1996 to 2010, with an estimated 9,470 additional admissions per year.
Observational (n=5,826,067)
Yes
Hospital admissions for atrial fibrillation in the US increased significantly between 1996 and 2010, though length of stay and inpatient mortality remained stable.
Effect estimate: β = 9470 (95% CI 5645-13296)
p-value: p=<0.001
AIMS: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice. Patients presenting with AF are often admitted to hospital for rhythm or rate control, symptom management, and/or anticoagulation. We investigated temporal trends in AF hospitalizations in United States from 1996 to 2010. METHODS: Data were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), a national probability sample survey of discharges conducted annually by National Center for Health Statistics. Because of the survey design, sampling weights were applied to the raw NHDS data to produce national estimates. Hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of AF were identified using International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code of 427.31. Weighted least squares regression was used to test for linear trends in the number of AF admissions, length of stay, and inpatient mortality. We further stratified AF admissions based on patients' age, gender, and race. RESULTS: Admissions for a primary diagnosis of AF increased from approximately 286,000 in 1996 to about 410,000 in 2010 with a significant linear trend (β = 9470 additional admissions per year, p < 0.001). The trend of increased AF admissions was uniform across patient sub-groups. Overall, mean length of stay for AF admissions was 3.75 days, and this remained relatively stable over time (β = 0.002 days, p = 0.884). Inpatient mortality was 0.96% and also remained stable over time (β = 0.031%, p = 0.181). CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate an increase in the number of AF admissions but constant length of stay and mortality over time.
Nisar et al. (Wed,) conducted a observational in Atrial fibrillation (n=5,826,067). Temporal trends (1996-2010) was evaluated on Linear trend in the number of AF hospital admissions (β = 9470, 95% CI 5645-13296, p=<0.001). Hospital admissions for a primary diagnosis of atrial fibrillation in the United States increased significantly from 1996 to 2010, with an estimated 9,470 additional admissions per year.