Prevalence and relative risk factors of atrial fibrillation in male coal miners in North China

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias in clinical practice with considerable symptoms. AF impairs both functional status and the quality of life [ [1] Wang T.J. Larson M.G. Levy D. et al. Temporal relations of atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure and their joint influence on mortality: the Framingham Heart Study. Circulation. 2003; 107: 2920-2925 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1450) Google Scholar ], and thus becomes a huge burden of healthcare costs. The prevalence of AF depends upon the population studied [ 1 Wang T.J. Larson M.G. Levy D. et al. Temporal relations of atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure and their joint influence on mortality: the Framingham Heart Study. Circulation. 2003; 107: 2920-2925 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1450) Google Scholar , 2 Zhou Z. Hu D. An epidemiological study on the prevalence of atrial fibrillation in the Chinese population of Mainland China. J Epidemiol. 2008; 18: 209-216 Crossref PubMed Scopus (212) Google Scholar ]. However, very few large scales of studies to date have investigated the prevalence of AF and relative risk factors in China. Thus, we performed this epidemiological study in the population of Kailuan Mining area in China to evaluate the epidemiological features of AF in such domestic population.