High Resting Heart Rate Tied to Increased Risk for Atrial Fibrillation

THURSDAY, Nov. 7, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Elevated baseline resting heart rate (RHR) is associated with an increased risk for incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in Black adults, according to a study published online Oct. 30 in JAMA Network Open.

Vidhushei Yogeswaran, M.D., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues evaluated the association between RHR and incident AF in a large community-based sample of Black adults. The analysis included 4,965 participants in the Jackson Heart Study (2000 through 2016).

The researchers found that during a median 14 years of follow-up, there were 458 incident AF events, yielding an incident rate of 7.5 per 1,000 person-years. For each 10 beats per minute higher RHR, there was a higher risk for incident AF when adjusting for AF risk factors (hazard ratio, 1.09; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.19). When excluding individuals with prior heart failure, prior myocardial infarction, and antiarrhythmic medication use at baseline, the risk was even higher (hazard ratio, 1.14; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.28). Age, sex, body mass index, hypertension, and physical activity level did little to modify the effect.

"Additional research is needed to determine whether RHR can improve the selection of individuals for AF screening, which may help to mitigate long-standing health disparities," the authors write.

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