Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease (Dec 2020)

Management of Atrial Fibrillation in Older Patients by Morbidity Burden: Insights From Get With The Guidelines‐Atrial Fibrillation

  • Frederik Dalgaard,
  • Haolin Xu,
  • Roland A. Matsouaka,
  • Andrea M. Russo,
  • Anne B. Curtis,
  • Peter Vibe Rasmussen,
  • Martin H. Ruwald,
  • Gregg C. Fonarow,
  • Angela Lowenstern,
  • Morten L. Hansen,
  • Jannik L. Pallisgaard,
  • Karen P. Alexander,
  • John H. Alexander,
  • Renato D. Lopes,
  • Christopher B. Granger,
  • William R. Lewis,
  • Jonathan P. Piccini,
  • Sana M. Al‐Khatib

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.120.017024
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 23

Abstract

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Background Knowledge is scarce regarding how multimorbidity is associated with therapeutic decisions regarding oral anticoagulants (OACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation. Methods and Results We conducted a cross‐sectional study of hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation using the Get With The Guidelines‐Atrial Fibrillation registry from 2013 to 2019. We identified patients ≥65 years and eligible for OAC therapy. Using 16 available comorbidity categories, patients were stratified by morbidity burden. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to determine the odds of receiving OAC prescription at discharge by morbidity burden. We included 34 174 patients with a median (interquartile range) age of 76 (71–83) years, 56.6% women, and 41.9% were not anticoagulated at admission. Of these patients, 38.6% had 0 to 2 comorbidities, 50.7% had 3 to 5 comorbidities, and 10.7% had ≥6 comorbidities. The overall discharge OAC prescription was high (85.6%). The prevalence of patients with multimorbidity increased from 59.7% in 2014 to 64.3% in 2019 (P trend=0.002). Using 0 to 2 comorbidities as the reference, the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) of OAC prescription were 0.93 (0.82, 1.05) for patients with 3 to 5 comorbidities and 0.72 (0.60, 0.86) for patients with ≥6 comorbidities. In those with ≥6 comorbidities, the most common reason for nonprescription of OACs were frequent falls/frailty (31.0%). Conclusions In a contemporary quality‐of‐care database of hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation eligible for OAC therapy, multimorbidity was common. A higher morbidity burden was associated with a lower odds of OAC prescription. This highlights the need for interventions to improve adherence to guideline‐recommended anticoagulation in multimorbid patients with atrial fibrillation.

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