UK study highlights importance of GP data in understanding atrial fibrillation

The common heart condition affects approximately 1.5 million people in the UK

A new UK study has highlighted the critical role of GP data in understanding atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm.

The research led by Oxford Population Health and published in the journal Europace demonstrates how communication across NHS settings and access to comprehensive healthcare data can improve patient care for those with AF and other conditions.

Approximately 1.5 million people in the UK are living with AF, which causes the heart to beat irregularly and often too fast. The condition is not life-threatening, but it can create blood clots in the heart and is believed to contribute to one in five strokes.

The team used UK Biobank data from 230,060 individuals who had agreed to allow access to their GP records and details of any hospital admissions to find potential differences between people with AF recorded in different healthcare settings. Of these, 7,136 had a diagnosis of AF recorded during the seven years average follow-up period.

The researchers, funded by the British Heart Foundation the National Institute of Health and Care Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, identified 28% more cases of AF by taking data from GPs into account compared to using hospital data alone, and evidence of the condition was recorded an average of 1.3 years earlier.

There were also lower rates of anticoagulation therapy, which reduces stroke risk, and higher rates of death in patients with AF only recorded in hospital compared to those recorded in primary care.

Jemma Hopewell, Professor of Precision Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford Population Health and Senior Author of the study, said: “Access to electronic healthcare records has revolutionised large-scale epidemiological research, but we need to consider the richness of the data available and not rely on hospital records alone to study chronic conditions such as AF.

“Our findings show that data from across healthcare settings are extremely powerful for understanding patient profiles, management and consequences of AF.”