ArticleBMC cardiovascular disorders2014
Scarcity of atrial fibrillation in a traditional African population: a community-based study.
Article in BMC cardiovascular disorders, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of the Spectrum of Cardiac Arrhythmias in Sub-Saharan Africa.Global heart · 2020Pooled it
- Article
- ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY EPIDEMIOLOGY AND ROLE OF INFLAMMATION IN THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY.Annals of Ibadan postgraduate medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Hypertension literacy: Concept analysis.Nursing open · 2023Article
- The prevalence, management, and thirty-day outcomes of symptomatic atrial fibrillation in a Tanzanian emergency department.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2021Article
- World Heart Federation Roadmap on Atrial Fibrillation - A 2020 Update.Global heart · 2021Review
- Very Low Prevalence and Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation among Bolivian Forager-Farmers.Annals of global health · 2021Article
- Epidemiology and long-term prognosis of atrial fibrillation in rural African patients.The Egyptian heart journal : (EHJ) : official bulletin of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology · 2019Article
- NT -pro BNP as a Mediator of the Racial Difference in Incident Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2019Article
- Review of screening studies for atrial fibrillation in rural populations of 11 countries.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2017Review
- Cardiovascular disease in Africa: epidemiological profile and challenges.Nature reviews. Cardiology · 2017Review
- Article
- Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in evolutionary perspective: a critical role for helminths?Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2016Review
- Inflammation, a link between obesity and atrial fibrillation.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn western societies, atrial fibrillation is an increasingly common finding among the elderly. Established risk factors of atrial fibrillation include obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Atrial fibrillation has almost exclusively been studied in western populations where these risk factors are widely present. Therefore, we studied the epidemiology of atrial fibrillation in a traditional African community.
methodsIn rural Ghana, among 924 individuals aged 50 years and older, we recorded electrocardiograms to detect atrial fibrillation. As established risk factors, we documented waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), capillary glucose level, blood pressure, and electrocardiographic myocardial infarction. In addition, we determined circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL6), a proinflammatory cytokine, and C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation. We compared the risk factors with reference data from the USA.
resultsAtrial fibrillation was detected in only three cases, equalling 0.3% (95% CI 0.1-1.0%). Waist circumference, BMI, and capillary glucose levels were very low. Hypertension and myocardial infarction were uncommon. Circulating levels of IL6 were similar, but those of CRP were lower compared with the USA.
conclusionAtrial fibrillation is very scarce in this traditional African community. Its low prevalence compared with western societies can be explained by the rareness of its established risk factors, which are closely related to lifestyle, and by possible unmeasured differences in other risk factors or genetic factors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.