Patients suffering from atrial fibrillation in Germany. Characteristics, resource consumption and costs

Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is considered to be the most frequent form of cardiac dysrhythmia and is well known as a key risk factor for arterial thromboembolism. The incidence of Afib will increase in the future due to demographic changes as well as improved treatment options for acute and chronic heart diseases. The primary objectives of this analysis were to describe patient characteristics, to assess the resource consumption associated with Afib and to measure costs of direct treatment as well as consequential costs. A secondary objective was to identify factors that influence the costs or the type of Afib. The analysis is based on the representative ATRIUM register (Ambulantes Register zur Morbiditat des Vorhofflimmerns, Ambulatory register on morbidity of atrial fibrillation), a prospective, multicenter cohort study in which general practitioners and family doctors documented the characteristics and resource utilization of consecutively enrolled patients. The documented resource consumption use was subsequently valued with unit costs. The presented results are focused on the baseline documentation and refer to the period 12 months before enrollment. A total of 3,667 patients (mean age 72.1 +/- 9.2 years, 58% men) fulfilled all inclusion criteria and were included by a total of 730 doctors. The patients had an average of 2.4 +/- 1.0 risk factors and the most common was hypertension (84% of patients). The most commonly observed comorbidities were heart failure (43%) and coronary heart disease (CHD, 35%). Medicines for oral anticoagulation (86%) and beta blockers (75%) were the most frequently prescribed drugs. A total of 1/3 of all patients received a specific kind of Afib therapy (e. g. drug conversion, cardioversion) during the past 12 months. The disease-specific mean costs of the patients were 3,274 +/- 5,134 Euro, while the acute (inpatient) treatment represented the largest proportion of these total costs (1,639 +/- 3,623 Euro). Patients with high treatment costs were significantly younger and suffered from more concomitant diseases. Atrial fibrillation is associated with significant patient-related attributable costs that are caused particularly by expenditures of inpatient stay. New, innovative treatment strategies seem to offer particular potential savings if they are able to reduce the number of hospitalizations due to Afib itself or subsequent cardiac events.