3.2. Baseline characteristics
Incident AF was diagnosed in 12,797 participants over an observational period of 1,869,266 person-years (0.69%/year). Patients who developed AF were older (aged, 71.7±5.6 vs. 72.0±5.7 years, p<0.001), and had more cases of heart failure, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than those without incident AF. The observation period was longer in the AF group (median 85 months; interquartile range [IQR], 59–95 months) than in the no-AF group (median, 85 months; IQR, 55–95 months) (p<0.001) (Table 1). After PS matching, the baseline characteristics of the incident AF and no-AF groups became similar (Table 1).