A Comparison of Atrial Fibrillation Incidence Among Physicians and the General Population

The aim of this study is to explore the association of atrial fibrillation (AF) among physicians in Taiwan.We used Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the incidence rate and the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to determine the risk of AF in the physician study cohort relative to the comparison cohort.A total of 22,479 physicians and 22,479 matched controls for comparison were included in the study. The Cox proportional hazard regression model revealed that male physician was associated with a trend toward increased risk of AF than nonphysician after adjusting for potential confounders (aHR, 1.05; 95% CI: 1.00-1.11). In age-specific analysis, male physicians aged ≤ 45 years showed the stronger association with AF (aHR, 1.33; 95% CI: 1.22-1.45). Further stratification with medical categories, surgeons had a significantly higher risk of AF than nonphysicians group (aHR, 1.28; 95% CI: 1.18-1.39).We reported a pivotal study that showed possible relation between physician specialists and AF in the large cohort.