Article

The association between physical activity and atrial fibrillation
remains controversial.
Physical activity has been associated with a higher and
lower atrial fibrillation risk.
These inconsistent results might be related to
the type of physical activity.
We aimed to investigate the association of total
and types of physical activity, including walking, cycling, domestic work,
gardening and sports, with atrial fibrillation. Design Prospective cohort study.
Methods Our study was performed in the Rotterdam Study, a prospective
population-based cohort. We included 7018 participants aged 55 years and older
with information on physical activity between 1997-2001. Cox proportional hazards
models were used to examine the association of physical activity with atrial
fibrillation risk. Models were adjusted for biological and behavioural risk
factors and the remaining physical activity types. Physical activity was
categorised in tertiles and the low group was used as reference. Results During
16.8 years of follow-up (median: 12.3 years, interquartile range: 8.7-15.9
years), 800 atrial fibrillation events occurred (11.4% of the study population).
We observed no association between total physical activity and atrial
fibrillation risk in any model.
After adjustment for confounders, the hazard
ratio and 95% confidence interval for the high physical activity category
compared to the low physical activity category was: 0.71 (0.80-1.14) for total
physical activity. We did not observe a significant association between any of
the physical activity types with atrial fibrillation risk. Conclusion Our results
suggest that physical activity is not associated with higher or lower risk of
atrial fibrillation in older adults. Neither total physical activity nor any of
the included physical activity types was associated with atrial fibrillation risk.

Langue : ANGLAIS