SynthesisPacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE2021
Representation of women, older patients, ethnic, and racial minorities in trials of atrial fibrillation.
Synthesis in Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Messaging Informed by Behavioral Economics and Representativeness in Clinical Research Enrollment: Four Randomized Clinical Trials.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Brazilian Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines - 2025.Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia · 2025Article
- South Asian Representation in Cardiovascular Disease Randomized Controlled Trials: A Systematic Review.JACC. Asia · 2025Article
- Future of Valvular Heart Disease and Structural Heart Interventions: Why So Much Excitement?Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Measuring Representativeness in Clinical Trials.Circulation · 2025Review
- Toolkit for adapting community engagement studios to effectively engage older adults in research.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Article
- Participation of women in clinical studies of atrial fibrillation in the Northern Netherlands.Netherlands heart journal : monthly journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology and the Netherlands Heart Foundation · 2024Article
- Eliminating Health Disparities in Atrial Fibrillation, Heart Failure, and Dyslipidemia: A Path Toward Achieving Pharmacoequity.Current atherosclerosis reports · 2023Review
- Global Burden of Atrial Fibrillation and Flutter by National Income: Results From the Global Burden of Disease 2019 Database.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2023Article
- Racial, ethnic, and sex disparities in atrial fibrillation management: rate and rhythm control.Journal of interventional cardiac electrophysiology : an international journal of arrhythmias and pacing · 2023Review
- Incidence and Prevalence of Atrial Fibrillation in Latinos: What's New Since the Study in Latinos (SOL)?Current cardiology reports · 2023Review
- Improving representativeness in trials: a call to action from the Global Cardiovascular Clinical Trialists Forum.European heart journal · 2023Review
- Transforming Atrial Fibrillation Research to Integrate Social Determinants of Health: A National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Workshop Report.JAMA cardiology · 2023Article
- Association of Women Authors With Women Enrollment in Clinical Trials of Atrial Fibrillation.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
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRepresentation trends of women, older adults, and ethnic/racial minorities in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of atrial fibrillation (AF) are uncertain.
methodsWe systematically reviewed 134 AF related RCTs (phase II and III) encompassing 149,162 participants using Medline and ClinicalTrials.gov through April 2019 to determine representation trends of women, older patients (≥75 years), and ethnic/racial minorities. Weighted data on the prevalence of AF from epidemiological studies were used to compare the representation of the studied groups of interest in AF RCTs to their expected burden of the disease.
resultsOnly 18.7% of the RCTs reported proportion of older patients, and 12.7% RCTs reported ethnic/racial minorities. The proportions of women in RCTs versus general population were 35.2% and 35.1%, of Hispanics were 11.9% and 5.2%, of Blacks were 1.2% and 5.7%, of American Indian/Alaskans were 0.2% and 0.2%, of Asians were 14.2% and 2.4%, of native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders were 0.05% and 0.1% and of non-Whites were 19.5% and 22.5%, respectively. The weighted mean age (SD) across the trials was 65.3 (3.2) years which was less than the corresponding weighted mean age of 71.1 (4.5) years in the comparative epidemiological data.
conclusionThe reporting of older patients and ethnic/racial minorities was poor in RCTs of AF. The representation of women and American Indian/Alaskan natives matched their expected population share of disease burden. Hispanics and Asians were over-represented and Blacks, native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders and non-Whites were under-represented in RCTs of AF.
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.