Abstract
Objectives
To examine the independent associations between atrial fibrillation (AF) and objectively
measured mobility in a nationally representative cohort.
Design
Wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), a population-based study
assessing health, economic, and social aspects of ageing.
Setting
Community-dwelling adults completed a home-based interview and a center-based health
assessment.
Participants
Participants aged 50 years or older, with Mini-Mental State Examination score of 24
or higher, and who completed at least 1 mobility test (n = 4525).
Measurements
Mobility was assessed with the Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) test and usual and dual task
gait speed obtained using a 4.88-m GAITRite® mat. AF was diagnosed using a 10-minute
surface electrocardiogram recording. Linear regression analyses were performed to
compare mobility in participants with and without AF, adjusting for confounders.
Results
In this sample (mean age 62.3 years; range 51–89), overall prevalence of AF was 3.1%,
increasing to 6.7% in the over 70s (11.8% men; 2.8% women). In multivariate analysis,
AF was independently associated with slower TUG (β 0.37; 95% confidence interval [CI]
0.07–0.71; P = .043) and slower usual gait speed (β −3.59; 95% CI −7.05 to −0.12; P = .030). There was a significant age*AF interaction effect for usual gait speed (β −0.480,
95% CI −0.907 to −0.053, P = .028). Adults with AF walked 3.77 cm/s more slowly than adults without AF at age
70, declining by 4.8 cm/s for each additional decade.
Conclusion
AF is independently associated with lower usual gait speed in community-dwelling adults
and this effect is magnified in those aged 70 and older. This may place them at increased
risk of falls, hospitalization, cognitive decline, and mortality, as well as stroke
and heart failure. Early recognition and treatment of AF is vital to improve physical
function and reduce this risk.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 04, 2014
Footnotes
The permanent address of S.J. is Academic Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Geriatric Medicine, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
This study was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, Irish Life PLC, and the Irish government. These funders played no part in the design, methods, subject recruitment, data collection, analysis and preparation of this paper; therefore, there is no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
