Arrhythmias & electrophysiologyResearch article
Socioeconomic deprivation and reclassification of ischemic stroke risk in patients with atrial fibrillation: A report from UK Biobank
- report from UK Biobank
Authors' conclusion
Socioeconomic deprivation independently predicts ischemic stroke in AF and enhances risk stratification beyond clinical scores, highlighting the value of incorporating socioeconomic metrics into risk prediction, thus impacting clinical decision.
Study context
- Population
- United Kingdom Biobank participants with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF), excluding those with prior stroke or baseline use of antithromboticUnited Kingdom Biobank participants with newly diagnosed AF
- Participants
- 21,893 participants
- Comparison
- highly-deprived group vs control group
- Outcome
- incident ischemic stroke
- Follow-up
- Median 3.9 years (1.6-7.2)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Adjusted hazard ratio
1.75
95% CI 1.24–2.46
P = 0.001
By group
highly-deprived group vs control group
adjusted HR 1.75 (95% CI 1.24–2.46); P = 0.001
Further findings
Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) domains
- Income, employment, health, and living environment deprivation were most strongly associated with increased stroke risk
Stroke incidence by CHA2DS2-VA score
- In patients with CHA2DS2-VA score 0-1, stroke incidence in the highly-deprived group exceeded that of control individuals with score 2-3
Adding IMD to the CHA2DS2-VA score
- C-index
- from 0.595 to 0.613 (P = .027)
- net reclassification index
- 14.6% (P = .002)
Original publication
Socioeconomic deprivation and reclassification of ischemic stroke risk in patients with atrial fibrillation: A report from UK Biobank. Heart Rhythm. Published 7 April 2026. doi:10.1016/j.hrthm.2026.03.1964
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it