Height is associated with incident atrial fibrillation in a large Asian cohort

Abstract

Background: Although increased height is associated with a risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), the mechanism is not well understood. We aimed to explore whether this association varies with metabolic conditions. Methods and results: We used the database from the 14-year Korea National Health Insurance Service–National Sample Cohort. The data of 368,206 adults older than 20 years who received a health check-up were analyzed to explore the association of height and AF risk. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations of height with the risk of AF. During the median follow up duration of 8.46 years, 2641 (0.72%) patients were diagnosed with AF at 3,070,724 person-years. Overall, greater height was significantly associated with AF risk (HR per 5 cm, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.03–1.05). The association did not vary with age, sex, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Conclusion: Metabolic conditions do not affect the higher risk of AF in tall people. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.