P6587Return to work and maintenance of work after first time hospitalization for atrial fibrillation or flutter

Background: Atrial fibrillation or flutter (AF) is associated with reduced quality of life and may impact everyday living. Little is known about patients returning to work or maintenance of work after diagnosis with AF. Purpose: To examine return to work and maintenance of work in 30-day survivors of first time hospitalization for AF. Methods: From nationwide Danish registries, we identified 36,174 patients of working age (18–65 years), who were working prior to and who were alive 30 days after their first-time hospitalization for AF during 2000–2015. Cumulative incidences of return to work and hazard ratios (HRs) derived from Cause-specific Cox regression analyses of factors associated with leaving the workforce following return to work are reported. Results: Among 36,174 30-day survivors, 34,924 (96.5%) patients returned to work and the majority had returned to work at the time of inclusion 30 days after AF hospitalization (median time from day 30: 0 weeks [25%-75%: 0–0 weeks]). Only 1,250 (3.5%) patients did not return to work after first time hospitalization for AF, of whom 306 patients (0.9%) died (median time to death: 0.9 year [25%-75%: 0.3–3.3 years]). Among the 34,924 patients, who returned to work, 23,905 (68.5%) left the workforce (median time to withdrawal from work: 1.5 year [25–75%: 0.4–3.5 years]) and 8,802 (36.8%) of these 23,905 patients neither returned to work again nor died during a median follow-up time of 6.2 years [25–75%: 3.5–9.6 years]. Factors associated with leaving the workforce following return to work in multivariable adjusted Cox regression were: age per 1 year increase (HR: 1.02 [95% CI 1.02–1.03]), female sex (HR: 1.12 [95% CI 1.09–1.15]), stroke (HR: 1.18 [95% CI 1.13–1.24]), ischemic heart disease (HR: 1.15 [95% CI 1.12–1.19]), heart failure (HR: 1.10 [95% CI 1.06–1.14]), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HR: 1.17 [95% CI: 1.10–1.23]), diabetes (HR: 1.08 [95% CI 1.03–1.12]) and hypertension (HR: 1.14 [95% CI 1.10–1.17]). Patients with medium education level (high school, vocational or short cycle tertiary education) and high education level (longer tertiary, bachelor, master and/or PhD) were associated with a lower risk of detachment from the workforce relative to patients with the lowest education level (pre-primary, primary or lower secondary education): HR 0.88 [95% CI 0.86–0.91] and HR 0.67 [95% CI 0.64–0.69].