Researchers at Los Angeles-based Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai found that, accounting for height, women are 50% more likely to develop Afib.
The study, published in JAMA Cardiology Aug. 31, followed more than 25,000 individuals without prior heart disease. After adjusting for the differences in height, women had a higher risk of developing Afib of upward of 50%.
"This is the first study to show an actual flip in the risk of atrial fibrillation," Christine Albert, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute and senior author of the study, said. Dr. Albert also led the national VITAL Rhythm Trial upon which these findings are based. "Our study, however, surprisingly suggests that if a man and a woman have the same height, the woman would be more likely to develop AFib. Now the question has changed: Instead of why are women protected, now we must seek to understand why women are at a higher risk."
Women were previously thought to have a lower risk of Afib because they tend to be shorter than men, Dr. Albert explained.