Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2020
Opportunistic screening versus usual care for diagnosing atrial fibrillation in general practice: a cluster randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Screening for Atrial Fibrillation in Stroke Prevention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Screening strategies for atrial fibrillation in the elderly population: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2023Pooled it
- 2021 ISHNE/ HRS/ EHRA/ APHRS collaborative statement on mHealth in Arrhythmia Management: Digital Medical Tools for Heart Rhythm Professionals: From the International Society for Holter and Noninvasive Electrocardiology/Heart Rhythm Society/European Heart Rhythm Association/Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society.Annals of noninvasive electrocardiology : the official journal of the International Society for Holter and Noninvasive Electrocardiology, Inc · 2021Guideline
- Systematic, randomized atrial fibrillation screening using detailed phenotyping with a risk prediction model combined with patch electrocardiogram in a Swedish population aged 65 years or older: the CONSIDERING-AF trial.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2025Trial
- Identifying a Heterogeneous Effect of Atrial Fibrillation Screening in Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of the VITAL-AF Trial.Circulation. Cardiovascular quality and outcomes · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Screening for Atrial Fibrillation in Older Adults at Primary Care Visits: VITAL-AF Randomized Controlled Trial.Circulation · 2022Trial
- Opportunistic screening versus usual care for detection of atrial fibrillation in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Trial
- Australian key stakeholder views regarding implementation of atrial fibrillation screening: a qualitative evaluation.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Recent-onset atrial fibrillation: challenges and opportunities.European heart journal · 2026Review
- Active Monitoring for AtriaL FIbrillation (AMALFI): Rationale, protocol, and pilot for a pragmatic, randomized, controlled trial of remote screening for asymptomatic atrial fibrillation.American heart journal · 2025Article
- Global implementation and evaluation of atrial fibrillation screening in the past two decades - a narrative review.NPJ cardiovascular health · 2024Review
- Screening and detection of atrial fibrillation in primary care: current practice and future perspectives.European heart journal supplements : journal of the European Society of Cardiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Deep learning evaluation of echocardiograms to identify occult atrial fibrillation.NPJ digital medicine · 2024Article
- Chinese Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation.Journal of geriatric cardiology : JGC · 2024Article
- The feasibility of population screening for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation using hand-held electrocardiogram devices.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2024Article
- Effect of clinic-based single-lead electrocardiogram rhythm assessment on oral anticoagulation prescriptions in patients with previously diagnosed atrial fibrillation.Heart rhythm O2 · 2023Article
- Increasing screening for atrial fibrillation in general practice: the Atrial Fibrillation Self-Screening, Management And guideline-Recommended Therapy (AF Self-SMART) study.The Medical journal of Australia · 2023Article
- Natural Language Processing to Improve Prediction of Incident Atrial Fibrillation Using Electronic Health Records.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, and all-cause mortality. AF may be asymptomatic and therefore remain undiagnosed. Devices such as single-lead electrocardiographs (ECGs) may help GPs to diagnose AF.
aimTo investigate the yield of opportunistic screening for AF in usual primary care using a single-lead ECG device. DESIGN AND
settingA clustered, randomised controlled trial among patients aged ≥65 years with no recorded AF status in the Netherlands from October 2014 to March 2016.
methodFifteen intervention general practices used a single-lead ECG device at their discretion and 16 control practices offered usual care. The follow-up period was 1 year, and the primary outcome was the proportion of newly diagnosed cases of AF.
resultsIn total, 17 107 older people with no recorded AF status were eligible to participate in the study. In the intervention arm, 10.7% of eligible patients (
conclusionOpportunistic screening with a single-lead ECG at the discretion of the GP did not result in a higher yield of newly detected cases of AF in patients aged ≥65 years in the community than usual care. For higher participation rates in future studies, more rigorous screening methods are needed.
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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.