THURSDAY, July 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) — There is a correlation for asthma and lack of asthma control with the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study published online July 11 in JAMA Cardiology.
Aivaras Cepelis, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and colleagues conducted a prospective population cohort study to examine the correlation between asthma, levels of asthma control, and AF. Participants from a second and third iteration of the survey-based Nord-Trøndelag Health Study were recruited. Data were included for 54,567 adults.
The researchers found that 10.9 percent of the participants reported ever having asthma; 7.2 and 4.6 percent reported being diagnosed with asthma and having active asthma, respectively. Overall, 3.8 percent of participants developed AF during a mean follow-up of 15.4 years. Compared to participants without asthma, those with physician-diagnosed asthma had a significantly increased risk of developing AF (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.38). A dose-response association was seen between levels of asthma control and AF risk, with the highest risk for those with uncontrolled asthma (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.74).
“Asthma and lack of asthma control were associated with moderately increased risks of AF in a dose-response manner,” the authors write. “Further studies are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms and clarify causal pathways between asthma and AF.”
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