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The Framingham Heart Study has been a valuable resource in our understanding of the incidence, prevalence, and risk factors for many cardiac conditions. In the current analysis, investigators evaluated incidence, prevalence, and risk factors for atrial fibrillation (AF) between 1958 and 2007.
During the 50 years of observation of 9511 subjects without baseline AF (202,417 person-years), 1544 cases of AF occurred. Between 1958 and 1967, the age-adjusted prevalence of AF was 20.4/1000 person-years in men and 13.7/1000 person-years in women. In the most recent decade (1998–2007), AF prevalence quadrupled to 96.2/1000 person-years in men and 49.4/1000 person-years in women.
Prevalence of specific risk factors also changed substantially. Smoking a…