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.