SynthesisJournal of general internal medicine2021
Atrial Fibrillation Is Associated with Cognitive Impairment, All-Cause Dementia, Vascular Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of general internal medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 9 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
78 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- Management of brain-heart multimorbidity: a clinical practice guideline.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2026Guideline
- Beyond the beats: a systematic review of the underlying inflammatory pathways between atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- Atrial fibrillation burden in clinical practice, research, and technology development: a clinical consensus statement of the European Society of Cardiology Council on Stroke and the European Heart Rhythm Association.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 · 2025Guideline
- 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2024Guideline
- Guideline
- Is Greenness Associated with Dementia? A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-analysis.Current environmental health reports · 2022Pooled it
- Atrial Fibrillation and the Risk of Early-Onset Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Pooled it
- Sensitivity and specificity of automated blood pressure devices to detect atrial fibrillation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Neurocardiology: Brain-Heart Interactions in the Heart.MedComm · 2026Review
- Murine ADAM15 Deficiency Is Associated With Atrial Remodelling and Atrial Arrhythmia Susceptibility.European journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Atrial Fibrillation Burden: Assessment, Clinical Significance, and Therapeutic Implications.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Diagnostic accuracy and clinical impact of internist-performed point-of-care ultrasound in atrial fibrillation: a multicenter study.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Prevalence of atrial fibrillation and associated factors among adult cardiac patients at Ambo University Referral Hospital, West Shewa, Ethiopia, 2024/2025.American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2026Article
- Accumulation of chronic conditions in patients aged <65 years diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.Heart rhythm · 2026Article
- A model for prediction of recurrence risk after zero-fluoroscopy catheter ablation for patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Sovateltide at the heart-brain axis crosstalk in Alzheimer's disease: a promising multi-target and cutting-edge therapeutic approach.Inflammopharmacology · 2026Review
- A nomogram as a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly patients with atrial fibrillation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Atrial Fibrillation and Risk of Incident Cognitive Impairment: The REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke Study.The American journal of cardiology · 2026Article
- Temporal trends of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter burden across the BRICS: An observational study analysis for the GBD 2021.Medicine · 2026Observational
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAtrial fibrillation (AF) is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia in patients with stroke history. However, the association between AF and cognitive impairment in broader populations is less clear.
objectiveTo systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the existing evidence regarding the association of AF with cognitive impairment of any severity and etiology and dementia.
methodsMedline, Scopus, and Cochrane Central were searched in order to identify studies investigating the association between AF and cognitive impairment (or dementia) cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Studies encompassing and analyzing exclusively patients with stroke history were excluded. A random-effects model meta-analysis was conducted. Potential sources of between-study heterogeneity were investigated via subgroup and meta-regression analyses. Sensitivity analyses including only studies reporting data on stroke-free patients, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease were performed.
resultsIn total, 43 studies were included. In the pooled analysis, AF was significantly associated with dementia (adjusted OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.1; I
conclusionAF increases the risk of cognitive impairment, all-cause dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Future studies should employ interventions that may delay or even prevent cognitive decline in AF patients.
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.