BackgroundThe association between physical activity and atrial fibrillation remains
controversial. Physical activity has been associated with a higher and lower
atrial fibrillation risk. These inconsistent results might be related to the
type of physical activity. We aimed to investigate the association of total
and types of physical activity, including walking, cycling, domestic work,
gardening and sports, with atrial fibrillation.DesignProspective cohort study.MethodsOur study was performed in the Rotterdam Study, a prospective
population-based cohort. We included 7018 participants aged 55 years and
older with information on physical activity between 1997–2001. Cox
proportional hazards models were used to examine the association of physical
activity with atrial fibrillation risk. Models were adjusted for biological
and behavioural risk factors and the remaining physical activity types.
Physical activity was categorised in tertiles and the low group was used as
reference.ResultsDuring 16.8 years of follow-up (median: 12.3 years, interquartile range:
8.7–15.9 years), 800 atrial fibrillation events occurred (11.4% of the study
population). We observed no association between total physical activity and
atrial fibrillation risk in any model. After adjustment for confounders, the
hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval for the high physical activity
category compared to the low physical activity category was: 0.71
(0.80–1.14) for total physical activity. We did not observe a significant
association between any of the physical activity types with atrial
fibrillation risk.ConclusionOur results suggest that physical activity is not associated with higher or
lower risk of atrial fibrillation in older adults. Neither total physical
activity nor any of the included physical activity types was associated with
atrial fibrillation risk.
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