Advisory Committee Chair
Virginia J Howard
Advisory Committee Members
Emily Levitan
Byron C Jaeger
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2021
Degree Name by School
Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) School of Public Health
Abstract
Background: Our knowledge of the association between abdominal obesity (AO) and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) after adjusting for body mass index (BMI) is limited. Methods: We included 11,617 black and white participants (mean age 63.0 + 8.4 years) from the REGARDS (REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) national cohort study who were free of AF at baseline between 2003 and 2007, and completed a follow-up exam between 2013 and 2016 with assessment of AF. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval of incident AF associated with AO. We also evaluated the association between waist circumference and incident AF. Results: Over a median follow-up of 9.4 years, 999 participants developed AF. AO was associated with an increased risk of AF in a multivariable model adjusted for socio-demographic, lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.24-1.65, p<0.001). The association was attenuated after adjusting for BMI (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.95-1.35, p=0.16). There was no evidence of interaction between AO and incident AF by age category (age > 65 vs. age ≤ 65), sex, race, obesity or BMI category. Conversely, a 10 cm increase in waist circumference (WC) was associated with a higher incidence of AF after controlling for BMI (OR 1.18 95% CI 1.09-1.29, p<0.001), in both non-obese (OR 1.14, 95% CI 1.031.28, p=0.02) and obese (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.11-1.42, p<0.001) people. i Conclusions: There was an association between AO and incident AF, but the association was weakened after adjusting for BMI. There was a significant association between WC and incident AF, after taking other AF risk factors and BMI into account. WC is a potential modifiable risk factor for AF, and further research is warranted to explore the effect of decreasing WC on the population AF burden.
Recommended Citation
Kim, Joonseok, "Association of Abdominal Obesity and Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: Findings from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study" (2021). All ETDs from UAB. 924.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/924