Women who are taller and heavier face an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation compared with smaller women, a European conference has heard.
The study looked at body surface area, which is calculated using a standard formula based on weight and height. Professor Annika Rosengren of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues used this formula to analyse atrial fibrillation risk in 1,522,358 women followed for 30 years.
They looked at weight early in pregnancy, height, age, diabetes, hypertension and smoking, all recorded in the Swedish Medical Birth Registry and the Swedish Inpatient Registry.
This showed that bigger women had nearly three times the risk of atrial fibrillation than smaller women.
Compared with women in the lowest body surface area quartile, those in the second, third, and fourth (highest) quartiles had risks raised by 16%, 55%, and 261% respectively.
Professor Rosengren says: "Atrial fibrillation is the result of obesity-related metabolic changes but there is also a second cause. Big people – not necessarily fat, but big – have a larger atrium, which is where atrial fibrillation comes from. People with a bigger atrium have a higher risk of atrial fibrillation.
"We found that bigger women have a greater risk of atrial fibrillation. There was a stepwise elevation in risk with increasing body size. The group with the highest body surface area had nearly three times the risk as those with the lowest body surface area."
The work was presented on Friday (7 April) at the EuroPrevent 2017, the annual congress of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology held from 6 to 8 April 2017 in Malaga, Spain.
Persson, C. et al. Body size and risk of atrial fibrillation in women – a registry-based cohort study. Presented on 7 April at EuroPrevent 2017.
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