Trends with incidence relative to prevalence and other parameters
including increasing age
The general trend for AF prevalence was similar for AF incidence with
minor changes (Table 1). AF incidence based on procedures is more than
double in the younger population than the older population; while
incidence based on ER visits and hospital admission is negligible in the
younger population compared to older cohorts. Incidence based on office
observation was 9.3% in the younger population, relative to 5.3% in
prevalent cases which may explain the negligible cases based on ER
visits, The comorbidity profile for incident cases was similar to
prevalent cases with the exception that the frequency of different
comorbidities was generally higher among incident cases particularly for
vascular and valvular diseases in Medicare (Table 3).
Incidence cases based on rhythm control were similar to those based on
prevalent cases. Anticoagulation rates are similar for both incident and
prevalent cases in commercial cohorts and slightly lower for incident
cases in elderly population relative to prevalent cases.