Prevalence of Atrial Fibrillation in Korean Population

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice and has been a major public health problem. The prevalence of AF globally has been reported to range from 0.4% to 2% in the adult population; however, the prevalence widely varies depending on the study population. Although AF prevalence in Asian population is about 1% lower than that in European and North American population, the number of AF patients in Asia is rapidly increasing concomitant with the increased aging of the population. However, previous studies that reported AF epidemiology in the Korean population are limited. According to a recent report based on the national health claims database, prevalence of AF in 2015 was 0.7% in the entire Korean adult population and showed a continuous increase with population aging. Additionally, among patients with AF, mean CHA2DS2-VASc score was significantly increased and the number of high thromboembolic risk patients has increased over time. Although oral anticoagulation (OAC) prescription in AF patients increased from 35% to 51%, especially after introduction of non-vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants, a substantial proportion of Korean patients with AF still remain undertreated. In this review, we aimed to summarize temporal changes in the prevalence and incidence of AF and to evaluate the thromboembolic risk in patients with AF.