Uric acid and incident atrial fibrillation of 14 years population‐based cohort study: The Suita Study

BACKGROUND: Higher baseline uric acid (UA) was significantly associated with higher atrial fibrillation (AF) incidence in Japanese women. However, no prospective study is evident in the association between UA and incident AF in Japanese urban residents. METHODS: A total of 6863 participants (aged 30‐79 years; 47% men) without prior AF were followed for 13.9 years on average in the Suita Study. According to the UA categories, cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimating the Hazard Ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for incident AF. RESULTS: During 95178 person‐years of follow‐up, we observed 311 cases of incident AF (204 cases in men and 107 cases in women). Compared to the subjects with UA of 4.0‐4.9 mg/dL, multivariable‐adjusted HR (95% CIs) of incident AF was 1.50 (1.01‐2.25) (P = .047) for the subjects with UA ≥7.0 mg/dL. CONCLUSION: High UA was associated with an increased risk for incident AF in the Japanese population.