Patients’ Experiences of Living with Atrial Fibrillation: A Mixed Methods Study

Table 1

Demographic and characteristics of patients.

Patient characteristics	Patients N = 19^1	Median values
Age, years (25^th–75^th)		61 (54–69)
Sex, male	12
Marital status
Married/living with partner	14
Single	5
Educational level
Primary school	2
Upper secondary school	4
High school	5
University degree	8
Employment
Employed	12
Unemployed	1
Retired	6
Years since AF diagnosis (range)		5 (1–31)
Pattern of AF
Paroxysmal	14
Persistent	5
Frequency of AF during the last 3 months
<5 occasions	4
5–15 occasions	7
16–30 occasions	3
Persistent	5
Usual duration of AF episodes
1 to <7 hours	4
7 to <24 hours	7
24 hours to <2 days	1
2 to 7 days	1
>7 days	5
Comorbidities
Hypertension	8
Diabetes mellitus	3
Heart failure	4
COPD	2
Ischemic heart disease	2
Stroke/subarachnoid haemorrhage	1/1
Treatment
Pacemaker/ICD	1/1
Antiarrhythmic medication
Class I	6
Class II	14
Class III	6
Class IV	2
Digoxin	0
Anticoagulants	19

AF = atrial fibrillation; ICD = implantable cardioverter defibrillator; COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Median values are presented with 25th to 75th percentiles within brackets. Patients can have more than one antiarrhythmic drug. All patients on anticoagulants were treated with warfarin/Waran. ¹One patient was interviewed only and did not complete the questionnaires.