There has been a “staggering” rise in the number of people living with a stroke-inducing heart condition, a new study suggests.

Cases of atrial fibrillation (AF) – a dangerous heart rhythm condition and major cause of strokes – have increased by up to 72% in England over the last two decades, the research has found.

According to the study, the condition now outstrips the combined number of people diagnosed with the four most common types of cancer – breast, prostate, lung and bowel – and exceeds the number of people living with heart failure.

Researchers say the findings should help change the way AF is prevented, detected and treated, as not everyone experiences symptoms and diagnosing it is difficult.

The Northern Echo: People often end up in hospital with another associated condition before being diagnosed with AF (PA)People often end up in hospital with another associated condition before being diagnosed with AF (PA) (Image: PA)

How many people have the condition?

In the largest and most detailed study into AF, researchers from the University of Leeds used GP and hospital data from 3.4 million people in England to analyse those diagnosed with AF for the first time between 1998 and 2017.

They found the number of people diagnosed with the condition each year increased from 117,880 in 1998 to 202,333 in 2017.

An ageing and less healthy population is largely behind the increase, the researchers found.

But when age and sex were taken into consideration, researchers found the number of people diagnosed with AF increased by 30% across the two decades.

More men were diagnosed, and on average five years earlier than women, which is thought to be partly due to more men having diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, coronary heart disease and having smoked.

Chris Gale, professor of cardiovascular medicine and British Heart Foundation-funded researcher at the University of Leeds, said: “Changes to healthcare are driven by data and we’ve created the first blueprint of AF that lays bare the growing impact it is having on society.

“Our study paints a clear picture of the trends and gaps that need to be urgently addressed to achieve health equity and prevent unnecessary strokes.

“We hope that it can be used as a reference point to determine if new interventions and health strategies are successful in curtailing the rising tide of cases and burden that comes with AF.”

The study also found that the youngest and oldest individuals were most likely to be diagnosed in hospital.

This suggests that new onset AF is particularly troublesome in these groups, and measures should be put in place to prevent and detect it early to reduce hospital admissions.

AF comes and goes, and so an episode might not happen during the patient’s appointment.

It can also occur without symptoms, and so a person may not know they have AF until they have a related cardiovascular event such as a stroke, by which time it may be too late.