Atrial fibrillation is associated with low occupational physical activity and long occupational sedentary time: A national multicenter hospital-based case-control study

OBJECTIVE: We examined associations of occupation, industry, occupational physical activity (OPA), and occupational sedentary time (OST) with atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS: We conducted a national hospital-based case-control study in Japan. AF cases (N=7,013), identified using ICD-10 codes I47/I48 and catheter ablation (ICD-9-CM 37.34), were matched 1:1 to controls by sex, age, admission year, and hospital. OPA was classified from the longest-held occupation and OST using an occupation-by-industry job-exposure matrix. RESULTS: Some manual occupations and service/construction industries had lower AF odds. Moderate/low OPA had higher odds than high OPA (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.19-1.50; 1.46, 1.30-1.63), and intermediate/long OST than short OST (1.21, 1.11-1.32; 1.15, 1.06-1.24). CONCLUSIONS: Lower OPA and longer OST were associated with higher AF odds. Occupation-related activity may inform prevention targeting prolonged sitting and low physical activity.