Incidence of atrial fibrillation in patients with diabetes mellitus: effect of sex, age and type of diabetes in a nationwide analysis
Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background. There remain uncertainties regarding diabetes mellitus and the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF), in relation to type of diabetes, and the interactions with sex and age. We investigated whether diabetes confers higher relative rates of AF in women compared to men, and whether these sex-differences depend on type of diabetes and age. Methods. All patients aged > =18 seen in French hospitals in 2013 with at least 5 years of follow-up without a history of AF were identified and categorized by their diabetes status. We calculated overall and age-dependent incidence rates, hazard ratios, and women-to-men ratios for incidence of AF in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes (compared to no diabetes). Results. In 2,921,407 patients with no history of AF (55% women), 45,389 had prevalent type 1 diabetes and 345,499 had prevalent type 2 diabetes. During 13.5 million person-years of follow-up, 327,012 patients with new-onset AF were identified. The incidence rates (IRs) of AF were higher in type 1 or type 2 diabetic patients than in non-diabetics, and increased with advancing age. Among individuals with diabetes, the absolute rate of AF was higher in men than in women. When comparing individuals with and without diabetes, women had a higher adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of AF than men: adjusted HR 1.32 (95% confidence interval 1.27-1.37) in women vs. 1.12(1.08-1.16) in men for type 1 diabetes, adjusted HR 1.17(1.16-1.19) in women vs. 1.10(1.09-1.12) in men for type 2 diabetes. The adjusted HRs for women were significantly higher than the adjusted HRs for men as shown with the adjusted women-to-men ratios (adjusted WMR = adjusted HR women compared to adjusted HR men) = 1.18 (95%CI 1.12-1.24) for type 1 diabetes and 1.10 (95%CI 1.08-1.12) for type 2 diabetes. This phenomenon was seen across all ages in men and women with type 1 diabetes and progressively decreased with advancing age. In type 2 diabetes, this phenomenon was seen after 50 years, increased until 60-65 years and then progressively decreased with advancing age. Conclusion. Although men have higher absolute rates for incidence of AF, the relative rates of incident AF associated with diabetes are higher in women than in men for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.