Global, regional, and national burden of disease study of atrial fibrillation/flutter, 1990–2019: results from a global burden of disease study, 2019

BACKGROUND: Data from the Global Burden of Disease, Injury, and Risk Factor Study 2019 (GBD 2019) was used to assess the burden and change in prevalence, incidence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years, and risk factors for atrial fibrillation/flutter in 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2019. METHODS: Incidence, prevalence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and their age-standardized rates of AF/AFL were analyzed by age, sex, socio-demographic index (SDI), and human development index (HDI) using the Global Burden of Disease study 2019 (GBD2019) results，and risk factors for AF/AFL (mainly high systolic blood pressure, high body-mass index, alcohol use, smoking and diet high in sodium) were differentially analyzed. RESULTS: There are 59.70 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 45.73–75.29 million) AF/AFL patients worldwide in 2019, with 4.72 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 3.64–5.96 million) new cases and 0.315 million deaths (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 0.268–0.361 million) and 8.39 million disability-adjusted years (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 6.69–10.54 million). The highest risk factor for deaths, DALYs attributable to AF/AFL in 2019 was high systolic blood pressure, high body-mass index, alcohol use, smoking, and diet high in sodium. It is estimated that between 2030 and 2034, the total incidence of male AF/ AFL will be 16.08 million, and the total number of deaths will be 1.01 million. For females, the total number of incidence is 16.85 million, and the total number of deaths is 1.49 million. CONCLUSIONS: AF/AFL remains a major global public health problem, although the ASR of prevalence, incidence, and DALY at the worldwide level showed a decreasing trend from 1990 to 2019(the ASR of deaths increased slightly). However, the unfavorable trend observed in this study in countries with lower SDI suggests that current prevention and treatment strategies should be reoriented. Some countries should develop more targeted and specific strategies to prevent the increase of AF/AFL. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14403-2.