Jakub Gumprecht, Gregory Y. H. Lip, Adam Sokal, Beata Średniawa, Katarzyna Mitręga, Jakub Stokwiszewski, Łukasz Wierucki, Aleksandra Rajca, Marcin Rutkowski, Tomasz Zdrojewski, Tomasz Grodzicki, Jarosław Kaźmierczak, Grzegorz Opolski, and Zbigniew Kalarus
Abstract Background The global burden of atrial fibrillation (AF) and diabetes mellitus (DM) is constantly rising, leading to an increasing healthcare burden of stroke. AF often remains undiagnosed due to the occurrence in an asymptomatic, silent form, i.e., silent AF (SAF). The study aims to evaluate the relationships between DM and AF prevalence using a mobile long-term continuous ECG telemonitoring vest in a representative Polish and European population ≥ 65 years for detection of AF, symptomatic or silent. Methods A representative sample of 3014 participants from the cross-sectional NOMED-AF study was enrolled in the analyses (mean age 77.5, 49.1% female): 881 (29.2%) were diagnosed with DM. AF was screened using a telemonitoring vest for a mean of 21.9 ± 9.1days. Results Overall, AF was reported in 680 (22.6%) of the whole study population. AF prevalence was higher among subjects with concomitant DM (DM+) versus those without DM (DM−) [25%, 95% CI 22.5-27.8% vs 17%; 95% CI 15.4–18.5% respectively, p