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Sex-specific relationship between abdominal obesity and new-onset atrial fibrillation in the general Japanese population

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Abstract

The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is expected to increase with increasing obesity and number of geriatric patients in Japan. Although higher body mass index and abdominal obesity are associated with an increased risk of AF, the sex-specific relationship between abdominal obesity and new-onset AF is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the sex-specific relationship between abdominal obesity and new-onset AF. This retrospective study evaluated the annual health checkup data of 67,379 adults (33,562 males; age, 54 ± 10 years) without baseline AF from April 2008 to March 2016. Participants were grouped according to waist circumference (WC): large-WC group (males, ≥ 85 cm; females, ≥ 90 cm) and normal-WC group. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the strength of the association between abdominal obesity and new-onset AF, overall and separately for males and females. During a median follow-up of 5 years, 280 (0.4%) new cases of AF were recorded. Univariate analysis revealed a significant increase in new-onset AF in males (odds ratio [OR], 1.97; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.49–2.60; p < 0.001) but not in females (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 0.96–2.97; p = 0.068) in the large-WC group. After adjusting for clinical variables, multivariate analysis revealed that a large WC was significantly associated with new-onset AF in males (OR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.31–2.36; p < 0.001) but not in females (OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.68–2.18; p = 0.514). Abdominal obesity is associated with an increased risk of new-onset AF in men.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anthony Enns (English teacher at Ikeda Junior High School, Kagoshima, Japan) for the language corrections.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Hypertension, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima, 890-8520, Japan

    Yuichi Ninomiya, Shin Kawasoe, Takuro Kubozono, Akihiro Tokushige, Hitoshi Ichiki & Mitsuru Ohishi

  2. Kagoshima Kouseiren Hospital, Kagoshima, Japan

    Hironori Miyahara & Koichi Tokushige

Authors
  1. Yuichi Ninomiya
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  2. Shin Kawasoe
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  3. Takuro Kubozono
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  4. Akihiro Tokushige
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  5. Hitoshi Ichiki
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  6. Hironori Miyahara
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  7. Koichi Tokushige
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  8. Mitsuru Ohishi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yuichi Ninomiya, Shin Kawasoe and Akihiro Tokushige. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yuichi Ninomiya and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuichi Ninomiya.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study conformed to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the institutional ethics committees of the Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University (No. 170130(520)).

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Informed consent was obtained from all the participants at each checkup according to the guidelines of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences.

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Ninomiya, Y., Kawasoe, S., Kubozono, T. et al. Sex-specific relationship between abdominal obesity and new-onset atrial fibrillation in the general Japanese population. Heart Vessels 36, 1879–1884 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-021-01880-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-021-01880-5

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