Socioeconomic position and risk of atrial fibrillation: a nationwide Danish cohort study.

AIM: To examine the association between socioeconomic position and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in different stages of life in a population of Danish citizens. METHODS: Register-based study. We followed all individuals turning 35, 50, 65 or 80 years from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2005 until AF, death, emigration or the end of study period (31 December 2015). Exposure was education and income. We used Cox regression for the HRs (95% CI) and the pseudo-observation method for the adjusted risk difference (RD) (%). RESULTS: A total of 2 173 857 participants were enrolled and 151 340 incident cases of AF occurred over a median of 13.6 years of follow-up. Adjusted HR (95% CI) of incident AF for the youngest age group with the highest education (ref lowest) was 0.62 (0.50 to 0.77) (women) and 0.85 (0.76 to 0.96) (men). The associations attenuated with increasing age, that is, HRs for the oldest age group were 1.04 (0.97 to 1.10) and 0.98 (0.96 to 1.04), respectively. The corresponding adjusted RDs (%) were: -0.28 (-0.43 to -0.14), -0.18 (-0.36 to -0.01), 3.04 (-0.55 to 6.64) and -0.74 (-3.38 to 2.49), respectively. Similar but weaker associations were found for income. CONCLUSION: Higher level of education and income was associated with a lower risk of being diagnosed with AF in young individuals but the association decreased with increasing age and was almost absent for the oldest age cohort. However, since AF is relatively rare in the youngest the RDs were low.

Adipose Tissue Lipophilic Index and Risk of Ischemic Stroke-A Danish Case-Cohort Study.

Diet may influence the risk of ischemic stroke by several mechanisms. A potential and hitherto unknown mechanism may relate to an effect on the lipophilic index, which is a new and convenient indicator of membrane fluidity. This study investigated the association between the adipose tissue lipophilic index and ischemic stroke and its subtypes. A case-cohort study was conducted based on the Danish cohort study Diet, Cancer, and Health, which includes 57,053 subjects aged 50⁻64 years at enrolment. A subcohort (n = 3500) was randomly drawn from the whole cohort. All ischemic stroke cases were validated and categorized into subtypes. The lipophilic index was calculated based on fatty acid profiles in adipose tissue. Subjects were divided into quintiles and a weighted Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to calculate hazard ratios. After appropriate exclusions, a subcohort of 3194 subjects and 1752 cases of ischemic stroke were included. When comparing the fifth quintile of the lipophilic index with the first quintile, the hazard ratio for ischemic stroke was 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.75, 1.13) and the trend across quintiles was not statistically significant (p = 0.1727). In conclusion, no association was found between the lipophilic index and ischemic stroke or its subtypes.

Treatment following myocardial infarction in patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: A correlation between excess mortality from myocardial infarctions (MI) and schizophrenia has already been established. What remains unclear is whether the initial communication between the treating doctor and the corresponding patient contributes to this excess mortality. AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate whether a patient with schizophrenia receives the same offers for examination and treatment following a MI compared to a psychiatric healthy control (PHC). METHODS: This cohort study includes patients diagnosed with schizophrenia at the time of their first MI (n = 47) in the years between 1995-2015 matched 1:2 to psychiatric healthy MI patients on gender, age and year of first MI. All existing hospital files for the 141 patients were thoroughly reviewed and the number of offered and accepted examinations and treatments were extracted for comparisons between the two groups. RESULTS: In general patients with schizophrenia were less likely to be offered and accept examination and at the same time be offered and accept treatment as compared to PHCs (p<0.01). In addition, there was a statistical trend towards patients with schizophrenia being more likely to decline examination (p = 0.10) and decline treatment (p = 0.09) compared to PHCs, while being offered examination and being offered treatment both contributed statistically insignificantly to the overall discrepancy between the two patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: Being diagnosed with schizophrenia limits the treatment received following a first MI compared to PHCs. However, we are unable to pinpoint, whether Physician bias, patient's unwillingness to receive health care or both contribute to the excess mortality seen in these comorbid patients.

Chocolate intake and risk of clinically apparent atrial fibrillation: the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between chocolate intake and incident clinically apparent atrial fibrillation or flutter (AF). METHODS: The Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Study is a large population-based prospective cohort study. The present study is based on 55 502 participants (26 400 men and 29 102 women) aged 50-64 years who had provided information on chocolate intake at baseline. Incident cases of AF were ascertained by linkage with nationwide registries. RESULTS: During a median of 13.5 years there were 3346 cases of AF. Compared with chocolate intake less than once per month, the rate of AF was lower for people consuming 1-3 servings/month (hazard ratio (HR) 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82 to 0.98), 1 serving/week (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.92), 2-6 servings/week (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.91) and ≥1 servings/day (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.65 to 1.09; p-linear trend <0.0001), with similar results for men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Accumulating evidence indicates that moderate chocolate intake may be inversely associated with AF risk, although residual confounding cannot be ruled out.

The Impact of Diagnosis on Job Retention: A Danish Registry-Based Cohort Study.

Background. In 1998, Denmark introduced the flex job scheme to ensure employment of people with a permanent reduced work capacity. This study investigated the association between select diagnoses and the risk of disability pension among persons eligible for the scheme. Methods. Using the national DREAM database we identified all persons eligible for the flex job scheme from 2001 to 2008. This information piece was linked to the hospital discharge registry. Selected participants were followed for 5 years. Results. From the 72,629 persons identified, our study included 329 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 10,120 patients with spine disorders, 2179 patients with ischemic heart disease, and 1765 patients with functional disorders. A reduced risk of disability pension was found in the group with rheumatoid arthritis (hazard ratio = 0.69 (0.53-0.90)) compared to the group with spine disorders. No differences were found when comparing ischemic heart disease and functional disorders. Employment during the first 3 months of the flex job scheme increased the degree of employment for all groups. Conclusion. Differences in the risk of disability pension were identified only in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This study demonstrates the importance of obtaining employment immediately after allocation to the flex job scheme, regardless of diagnosis.