Clinical InvestigationElectrophysiologyAge of natural menopause and atrial fibrillation: The Framingham Heart Study
Section snippets
Study sample
The Framingham Heart Study is a longitudinal, community-based study designed to investigate cardiovascular disease and its risk factors.9 Original cohort participants were enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study starting in 1948 and attend examinations every 2 years. Offspring cohort participation started in 1971 and consists of examinations every 4 to 8 years. To have 10-year follow-up, the present study used data from women attending the original cohort examination cycles 11 (1968-1971), 17
Results
The study cohort consisted of 1,809 unique Framingham Heart Study participants with 2,662 examinations. The mean age was 71.4 ± 7.6 years, and the mean age at natural menopause was 49.8 ± 3.6 years (Table I). There were 273 incident AF events in follow-up. The unadjusted incidence rates per 1000 person-years were 15.8 in the menopausal age <45 years category, compared with 11.5 and 13.3 in the menopausal age 45 to 53 and >53 years categories (P = .24 between different age categories) (Table II).
Discussion
We hypothesized an association between menopausal age and 10-year risk of incident AF in a prospective, community-based cohort and, specifically, that decreased age of menopause would result in increased incident AF risk. Our hypothesis stemmed from the established association between earlier menopausal age and augmented risk for cardiovascular events.
A second rationale was the cardiovascular adaptation and remodeling by complex vascular and endocrinologic pathways resulting from menopause.17
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Cited by (0)
Dr. Magnani is supported by American Heart Association Award 09FTF219028. This work was supported by grants from the NIH to Drs. Benjamin and Ellinor (HL092577), Dr. Benjamin (RO1AG028321, RC1-HL01056, 1R01HL102214) and Dr. Ellinor (5R21DA027021, 1RO1HL104156, 1K24HL105780) and 6R01-NS17950, N01-HC25195. This work was partially supported by the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research ARC on “Atrial Fibrillation at Boston University (http://www.bumc.bu.edu/evanscenteribr/).