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Europace Advance Access originally published online on July 24, 2009
Europace 2009 11(9):1156-1159; doi:10.1093/europace/eup197
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Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Atrial Fibrillation

Is the risk of atrial fibrillation higher in athletes than in the general population? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Jawdat Abdulla* and Jens Rokkedal Nielsen

Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Glostrup University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

Aims: The aim of this study was to examine by a systematic literature review and meta-analysis whether the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) is higher in athletes compared with not athletes.

Methods and results: A comprehensive systematic search was conducted for case–control studies that examined cases of AF or atrial flutter in athletes vs. controls. Extracted data from the eligible studies were meta-analysed using fixed effects model. Six case–control studies were eligible for meta-analysis. A total of 655 athletes and 895 controls were compared. Mean age was 51 ± 9 years and 93% were men. There were 147 (23%) vs. 116 (12.5%) cases of AF among athletes compared with controls. The overall risk of AF was significantly higher in athletes than in controls with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 5.29 (3.57–7.85), P = 0.0001, and Z-score = 8.08. For heterogeneity, the calculated {chi}2 = 2.92, P = 0.633, and I2 = 0% were not significant.

Conclusion: The risk of AF is significantly higher in athletes compared with not athletes. However, this finding should be confirmed further in large-scale prospective longitudinal studies.

Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Athlete

* Corresponding author. Lyovej 18, 3.TV, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. Tel/Fax: +45 38113340, Email: ja{at}heart.dk

Manuscript submitted 22 May 2009. Accepted after revision 27 June 2009.


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