Table 1.
Baseline characteristics according to year cohort included for patients with atrial fibrillation
| Period* | 1999–2002 | 2002–2007 | 2007–2011 | 2011–2013 | 2013–2016 | All |
| All | 16 072 | 51 767 | 25 638 | 26 807 | 34 164 | 154 448 |
| Men (%) | 7961 (49.5) | 24 884 (48.1) | 11 938 (46.6) | 12 172 (45.4) | 16 057 (47.0) | 73 012 (47.3) |
| Age, years (SD) | 77.3 (8.9) | 78.0 (10.1) | 79.6 (9.4) | 77.8 (9.7) | 77.9 (9.6) | 78.2 (9.7) |
| Cases | ||||||
| OAC, n (%) | 5493 (34.2) | 20 750 (40.1) | 10 558 (41.2) | 14 609 (54.5) | 23 141 (67.7) | 74 551 (48.3) |
| NOAC, n (%) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 18 (0.1) | 4521 (16.9) | 13 584 (39.8) | 18 123 (11.7) |
| Education, n (%)† | ||||||
| Low | 12 012 (74.7) | 35 910 (69.4) | 16 227 (63.3) | 14 650 (54.6) | 17 272 (50.6) | 96 071 (62.2) |
| Medium | 3077 (19.1) | 11 881 (23.0) | 7105 (27.7) | 8880 (33.1) | 12 195 (35.7) | 43 138 (27.9) |
| High | 983 (6.1) | 3976 (7.7) | 2306 (9.0) | 3277 (12.2) | 4697 (13.7) | 15 239 (9.9) |
| Income tertiles, n (%)‡ | ||||||
| Low | 5458 (34.0) | 17 665 (34.1) | 9198 (35.9) | 9415 (35.1) | 12 344 (36.1) | 54 080 (35.0) |
| Medium | 5637 (35.1) | 17 773 (34.3) | 8706 (34.0) | 9115 (34.0) | 11 472 (33.6) | 52 703 (34.1) |
| High | 4977 (31.0) | 16 329 (31.5) | 7734 (30.2) | 8277 (30.9) | 10 348 (30.3) | 47 665 (30.9) |
| Place of residence, n (%) | ||||||
| Peripheral | 1635 (10.2) | 5446 (10.5) | 2723 (10.6) | 2861 (10.7) | 3606 (10.6) | 16 271 (10.5) |
| Rural | 4562 (28.4) | 15 401 (29.8) | 7502 (29.3) | 8070 (30.1) | 10 415 (30.5) | 45 950 (29.8) |
| Intermediate | 2495 (15.5) | 7963 (15.4) | 4066 (15.9) | 4433 (16.5) | 5530 (16.2) | 24 487 (15.9) |
| Urban | 7380 (45.9) | 22 957 (44.3) | 11 347 (44.3) | 11 443 (42.7) | 14 613 (42.8) | 67 740 (43.9) |
| Cohabiting status, n (%) | ||||||
| Alone | 6930 (43.1) | 23 127 (44.7) | 11 927 (46.5) | 11 514 (43.0) | 14 589 (42.7) | 68 087 (44.1) |
| Not alone | 9142 (56.9) | 28 640 (55.3) | 13 711 (53.5) | 15 293 (57.0) | 19 575 (57.3) | 86 361 (55.9) |
| Comorbidity, n (%) | ||||||
| Heart failure | 3099 (19.3) | 5587 (10.8) | 3997 (15.6) | 2127 (7.9) | 2456 (7.2) | 17 266 (11.2) |
| Hypertension | 11 197 (69.7) | 28 791 (55.6) | 22 211 (86.6) | 17 969 (67.0) | 23 093 (67.6) | 103 261 (66.9) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 3246 (20.2) | 6767 (13.1) | 6819 (26.6) | 4802 (17.9) | 6463 (18.9) | 28 097 (18.2) |
| Ischaemic stroke | 2762 (17.2) | 5538 (10.7) | 5041 (19.7) | 2807 (10.5) | 3519 (10.3) | 19 667 (12.7) |
| Transient ischaemic attack | 1409 (8.8) | 2490 (4.8) | 2227 (8.7) | 1314 (4.9) | 1750 (5.1) | 9190 (6.0) |
| Systemic embolism | 251 (1.6) | 387 (0.7) | 292 (1.1) | 163 (0.6) | 207 (0.6) | 1300 (0.8) |
| Myocardial infarction | 2983 (18.6) | 5531 (10.7) | 2928 (11.4) | 2272 (8.5) | 2815 (8.2) | 16 529 (10.7) |
| Ischaemic heart diseases | 5564 (34.6) | 13 467 (26.0) | 7555 (29.5) | 6028 (22.5) | 7431 (21.8) | 40 045 (25.9) |
| PAD or aortic plaque | 1091 (6.8) | 3055 (5.9) | 2073 (8.1) | 1712 (6.4) | 2235 (6.5) | 10 166 (6.6) |
| Abnormal renal function | 534 (3.3) | 1717 (3.3) | 1379 (5.4) | 1261 (4.7) | 1865 (5.5) | 6756 (4.4) |
| Abnormal liver function | <10 | <10 | <10 | <10 | <10 | <10 |
| Bleeding | 1969 (12.3) | 7074 (13.7) | 4250 (16.6) | 3851 (14.4) | 4995 (14.6) | 22 139 (14.3) |
| Alcoholism | 283 (1.8) | 1128 (2.2) | 678 (2.6) | 714 (2.7) | 1082 (3.2) | 3885 (2.5) |
| Hyperthyroidism | 574 (3.6) | 2086 (4.0) | 1016 (4.0) | 853 (3.2) | 1074 (3.1) | 5603 (3.6) |
| Venous thromboembolism | 120 (0.7) | 367 (0.7) | 277 (1.1) | 301 (1.1) | 383 (1.1) | 1448 (0.9) |
| Knee or hip arthroplasty surgery | 43 (0.3) | 208 (0.4) | 131 (0.5) | 150 (0.6) | 166 (0.5) | 698 (0.5) |
| Concomitant medication | ||||||
| Antiplatelet | 8527 (53.1) | 26 098 (50.4) | 16 603 (64.8) | 13 826 (51.6) | 16 154 (47.3) | 81 208 (52.6) |
| NSAID | 4493 (28.0) | 15 732 (30.4) | 7259 (28.3) | 7062 (26.3) | 7417 (21.7) | 41 963 (27.2) |
| Mean CHA2DS2-VASc (SD) | 3.9 (1.2) | 3.3 (1.3) | 4.2 (1.1) | 3.5 (1.3) | 3.4 (1.2) | 3.6 (1.3) |
| Mean HAS-BLED (SD) | 2.6 (0.9) | 2.4 (1.0) | 3.0 (0.9) | 2.6 (1.0) | 2.5 (1.0) | 2.6 (1.0) |
*The periods are from 1 May the following year a European guideline was published as there is normally some time from publication to implementation. For example, we used the guideline published in 1998 from 1 May 1999. Please see online supplemental material S1 for further details.
†Education is divided into low: ≤lower secondary education; medium: ≤short-cycle tertiary education (if birth year ≤1965) or ≤bachelor’s degree or similar (if birth year >1965); high: ≥bachelor’s degree or similar (if birth year ≤1965) or ≥master’s degree or similar (if birth year >1965).
‡Income is divided into age-specific (5-year intervals) and enter year-specific (every second year) tertiles.
CHA2DS2-VASc, Congestive heart failure/left ventricular dysfunction, Hypertension, Age ≥ 75 years old (2 points), Diabetes mellitus, Stroke/transient ischemic attack/thromboembolism (2 points), Vascular disease, Age 65 to 75 years old, Sex category (female sex 1 point); HAS-BLED, Hypertension, Abnormal renal/liver function, Stroke, Bleeding, Labile INR (international normalized ratio), Elderly, Drugs/alcohol; NOAC, novel oral anticoagulant; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; OAC, oral anticoagulant; PAD, peripheral artery diseases.