Self-Rated Health Predicts Healthcare Utilization in Heart Failure

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) patients experience impaired functional status, diminished quality of life, high utilization of healthcare resources, and poor survival. Yet, the identification of patient-centered factors that influence prognosis is lacking. METHODS AND RESULTS: We determined the association of 2 measures of self-rated health with healthcare utilization and skilled nursing facility (SNF) admission in a community cohort of 417 HF patients prospectively enrolled between October 2007 and December 2010 from Olmsted County, MN. Patients completed a 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Low self-reported physical functioning was defined as a score ≤ 25 on the SF-12 physical component. The first question of the SF-12 was used as a measure of self-rated general health. After 2 years, 1033 hospitalizations, 1407 emergency department (ED) visits, and 19,780 outpatient office visits were observed; 87 patients were admitted to a SNF. After adjustment for confounding factors, an increased risk of hospitalizations (1.52 [1.17 to 1.99]) and ED visits (1.48 [1.04 to 2.11]) was observed for those with low versus moderate-high self-reported physical functioning. Patients with poor and fair self-rated general health also experienced an increased risk of hospitalizations (poor: 1.73 [1.29 to 2.32]; fair: 1.46 [1.14 to 1.87]) and ED visits (poor: 1.73 [1.16 to 2.56]; fair: 1.48 [1.13 to 1.93]) compared with good-excellent self-rated general health. No association between self-reported physical functioning or self-rated general health with outpatient visits and SNF admission was observed. CONCLUSION: In community HF patients, self-reported measures of physical functioning predict hospitalizations and ED visits, indicating that these patient-reported measures may be useful in risk stratification and management in HF

Metabolic syndrome and incidence of atrial fibrillation among blacks and whites in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

The MetSyn has been implicated in the development of AF; however, knowledge of this association among blacks is limited

Hemostatic markers are associated with the risk and prognosis of atrial fibrillation: The ARIC study

Various hemostatic markers are associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease; however, limited information exists on their relationship with the occurrence and prognosis of atrial fibrillation (AF)

Association of Serum Uric Acid With Incident Atrial Fibrillation (from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities [ARIC] Study)

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias seen in clinical practice. Current evidence suggests that serum uric acid (SUA) could be a marker of oxidative damage a factor reported as part of the mechanisms of AF. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if SUA predicted AF in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (ARIC). This analysis included 15,382 AF-free black and white men and women, aged 45-64, from the ARIC study, a population-based prospective cohort in the US. SUA was determined using the uricase-peroxidase method at baseline. The primary outcome was the incidence of AF defined as the occurrence of AF detected from hospital discharge codes, scheduled study electrocardiograms (ECG) and /or death certificates during follow-up period (1987-2004). We identified 1085 cases of incident AF. In Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, sex, race, center, education, body-mass index, serum glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, alcohol use, prevalent coronary heart disease and heart failure, serum creatinine, use of diuretics, and p wave duration on the ECG (as a measure of left atrial size) at baseline, the hazard ratio (HR) of AF associated with a 1-standard deviation increment in SUA was 1.16; 95% CI 1.06 -1.26. The association of SUA with AF risk differed by race and gender (p for interactio

Smoking and incidence of atrial fibrillation: Results from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Cigarette smoking increases the risk of coronary heart disease, but whether smoking increases atrial fibrillation (AF) is uncertain

A Clinical Risk Score for Atrial Fibrillation in a Biracial Prospective Cohort (from the Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities [ARIC] Study)

A risk score for AF has been developed by the Framingham Heart Study; however the applicability of this risk score, derived from whites, to predict new-onset AF in non-whites is uncertain. Therefore, we developed a 10-year risk score for new-onset AF using risk factors commonly measured in clinical practice using 14,546 individuals from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, a prospective community-based cohort of blacks and whites in the United States. During 10 years of follow-up, 515 incident AF events occurred. The following variables were included in the AF risk score: age, race, height, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, hypertension medication usage, precordial murmur, left ventricular hypertrophy, left atrial enlargement, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. The area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (AUC) of a Cox regression model including the previous variables was 0.78, suggesting moderately good discrimination. The point-based score developed from coefficients in the Cox model had an AUC of 0.76. This clinical risk score for AF in the ARIC cohort compared favorably with the Framingham Heart Study’s AF (AUC=0.68), CHD (AUC=0.63), and hard CHD (AUC=0.59) risk scores and the ARIC CHD risk score (AUC=0.58). In conclusion, we have developed a risk score for AF and have shown that the different pathophysiologies of AF and CHD limit the usefulness of a CHD risk score at identifying individuals at higher risk of AF

Orthostatic Change in Blood Pressure and Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation: Results from a Bi-Ethnic Population Based Study

Autonomic fluctuations are associated with the initiation and possibly maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, little is known about the relationship between orthostatic blood pressure change, a common manifestation of autonomic dysfunction, and incident AF

Temporal Trends in the Occurrence and Outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction (from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Surveillance Study)

Atrial fibrillation (AF) frequently coexists in the setting of myocardial infarction (MI), being associated with increased mortality. Nonetheless, temporal trends in the occurrence of AF complicating MI and in the prognosis of these patients are not well described. We examined temporal trends in prevalence of AF in the setting of MI and the effect of AF on prognosis in the community. We studied a population-based sample of 20,049 validated first incident nonfatal hospitalized MIs among 35- to 74-year old residents of 4 communities in the ARIC Study from 1987 through 2009. Prevalence of AF in the setting of MI increased from 11% to 15% during the 23-year study period. The multivariable adjusted odds ratio for prevalent AF, per 5-year increment, was 1.11 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04–1.19). Overall, in patients with MI, AF was associated with increased 1-year case fatality (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.07–2.01) compared to those without AF. However, there was no evidence that the impact of AF on MI survival changed over time or differed over time by sex, race or MI classification (all p-values > 0.10). In conclusion, co-occurrence of AF in MI slightly increased between 1987 and 2009. The adverse impact of AF on survival in the setting of MI was consistent throughout. In the setting of MI, co-occurrence of AF should be viewed as a critical clinical event, and treatment needs unique to this population should be explored further

Airflow Obstruction, Lung Function, and Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Reduced low forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) is reportedly associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Extant reports do not provide separate estimates for never smokers, and for African Americans, who incongruously have lower AF incidence than Caucasians

Fish, Fish-Derived n-3 Fatty Acids, and Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Results of observational and experimental studies investigating the association between intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) have been inconsistent.We studied the association of fish and the fish-derived n-3 PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with the risk of incident AF in individuals aged 45-64 from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort (n = 14,222, 27% African Americans). Intake of fish and of DHA and EPA were measured via food frequency questionnaire. Plasma levels of DHA and EPA were measured in phospholipids in a subset of participants (n = 3,757). Incident AF was identified through the end of 2008 using ECGs, hospital discharge codes and death certificates. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios of AF by quartiles of n-3 PUFAs or by fish intake.During the average follow-up of 17.6 years, 1,604 AF events were identified. In multivariable analyses, total fish intake and dietary DHA and EPA were not associated with AF risk. Higher intake of oily fish and canned tuna was associated with a nonsignificant lower risk of AF (p for trend = 0.09). Phospholipid levels of DHA+EPA were not related to incident AF. However, DHA and EPA showed differential associations with AF risk when analyzed separately, with lower risk of AF in those with higher levels of DHA but no association between EPA levels and AF risk.In this racially diverse sample, dietary intake of fish and fish-derived n-3 fatty acids, as well as plasma biomarkers of fish intake, were not associated with AF risk