A systematic evaluation of the available evidence suggests similarities as well as important differences in the risk factors for incidence of AF as compared with other cardiovascular diseases , which has implication s for the primary prevention strategies for atrial fibrillation
Established primary prevention strategies of cardiovascular diseases are based on underst and ing of risk factors , but whether the same risk factors are associated with  atrial fibrillation ( AF )  remains unclear .
Physical Activity and the Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Women
Background — Physical activity ( PA ) is well known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease . We hypothesized that regular PA , possibly acting through reductions in blood pressure and body mass index ( BMI ) , would reduce the risk of incident atrial fibrillation ( AF ) in women . Methods and Results — We prospect ively followed 34 759 women who reported their leisure-time PA levels for the occurrence of AF . We estimated energy expenditure in metabolic equivalent (MET)-h/wk and vali date d self-reported AF with medical records . The mean ( SD ) age of the 34 759 participants was 54.6 ( 7.0 ) years , the mean BMI was 26.0 ( 5.0 ) kg/m2 , 26.5 % had hypertension , and the median ( IQR ) PA was 8.4 ( 2.8 , 20.4 ) MET-h/wk . After a median of 14.4 years of observation , 968 women had development of AF . In age- , cholesterol- , smoking- , alcohol- , diabetes- , and race-adjusted models , increasing quintiles of PA were associated with reduced risks of AF ( hazard ratio for extreme quintiles , 0.82 ; 0.66 to 1.01 ; P trend=0.007 over quintiles ) . Although this association was not substantially different after adjusting for hypertension ( 0.87 ; 0.70 to 1.07 ; P trend 0.02 ) , it was attenuated after adjustment for BMI ( 0.99 ; 0.80 to 1.23 ; P trend=0.22 ) . Women who achieved the federal government 's recommendation of 7.5 MET-h/wk of PA were at reduced risk of AF compared with those who did not ( 0.86 ; 0.75 to 0.98 ; P=0.03 ) . This association was also attenuated by BMI ( 0.96 ; 0.84 to 1.10 ; P=0.57 ) . Conclusions — In middle-aged women , physical activity was associated with a modestly reduced risk of AF . However , this relationship was no longer significant after controlling for body mass index
A systematic evaluation of the available evidence suggests similarities as well as important differences in the risk factors for incidence of AF as compared with other cardiovascular diseases , which has implication s for the primary prevention strategies for atrial fibrillation
Established primary prevention strategies of cardiovascular diseases are based on underst and ing of risk factors , but whether the same risk factors are associated with  atrial fibrillation ( AF )  remains unclear .