Baseline characteristics* for all patients in GARFIELD-AF and those with very low to low risk (defined by a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 or 1 for men and 1 or 2 for women) compared with those with a higher risk (CHA2DS2-VASc score of ≥2 for men and ≥3 for women)
| Very low to low risk† n=7882 | Higher risk n=31 053 | Overall n=38 935 | P value | |
| Age (years) | 58.0 (52–63) | 74.0 (67–80) | 71.0 (63–78) | <0.001 |
| SBP (mm Hg) | 130.0 (118–140) | 134.0 (120–146) | 131.0 (120–145) | <0.001 |
| DBP (mm Hg) | 80.0 (70–88) | 80.0 (70–88) | 80.0 (70–88) | 0.174 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 27.0 (24–30) | 27.0 (24–31) | 27.0 (24–31) | 0.023 |
| Pulse (bpm) | 83.0 (70–105) | 84.0 (70–105) | 84.0 (70–105) | 0.326 |
| Type of AF, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Permanent | 612 (7.8) | 4326 (13.9) | 4938 (12.7) | |
| Persistent | 1188 (15.1) | 4736 (15.3) | 5924 (15.2) | |
| Paroxysmal | 2686 (34.1) | 8102 (26.1) | 10 788 (27.7) | |
| Unclassified‡ | 3396 (43.1) | 13 889 (44.7) | 17 285 (44.4) | |
| Gender, female, n (%) | 2658 (33.7) | 14 649 (47.2) | 17 307 (44.5) | <0.001 |
| Race, n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Caucasian | 4225 (53.6) | 19 932 (64.2) | 24 157 (62.0) | |
| Hispanic-Latino | 459 (5.8) | 2157 (6.9) | 2616 (6.7) | |
| Afro-Caribbean | 41 (0.5) | 77 (0.2) | 118 (0.3) | |
| Asian (not Chinese) | 2361 (30.0) | 6183 (19.9) | 8544 (21.9) | |
| Chinese | 523 (6.6) | 1543 (5.0) | 2066 (5.3) | |
| Mixed/other | 131 (1.7) | 437 (1.4) | 568 (1.5) | |
| Not declared/recorded | 142 (1.8) | 724 (2.3) | 866 (2.2) | |
| World region , n (%) | <0.001 | |||
| Europe | 3869 (49.1) | 18 633 (60.0) | 22 502 (57.8) | |
| North America | 192 (2.4) | 919 (3.0) | 1111 (2.9) | |
| Latin America | 606 (7.7) | 2661 (8.6) | 3267 (8.4) | |
| Asia | 2982 (37.8) | 7869 (25.3) | 10 851 (27.9) | |
| Rest of world§ | 233 (3.0) | 971 (3.1) | 1204 (3.1) | |
| Diabetes mellitus, n (%) | 220 (2.8) | 8338 (26.9) | 8558 (22.0) | <0.001 |
| Hypertension history, n (%) | 4263 (54.1) | 26 172 (84.3) | 30 435 (78.2) | <0.001 |
| Heart failure, n (%) | 426 (5.4) | 8326 (26.8) | 8752 (22.5) | <0.001 |
| Systemic embolism, n (%) | 0 (0.0) | 264 (0.9) | 264 (0.7) | <0.001 |
| Liver disease, n (%) | 47 (0.6) | 160 (0.5) | 207 (0.5) | 0.382 |
| History of peripheral vascular disease, n (%) | 32 (0.4) | 2180 (7.1) | 2212 (5.7) | <0.001 |
| History of carotid artery disease, n (%) | 57 (0.7) | 1127 (3.7) | 1184 (3.1) | <0.001 |
| History of stent use, n (%) | 139 (1.8) | 2425 (7.8) | 2564 (6.6) | <0.001 |
| History of CABG, n (%) | 33 (0.4) | 1127 (3.7) | 1160 (3.0) | <0.001 |
| History of stroke, n (%) | 0 (0.0) | 3030 (9.8) | 3030 (7.8) | <0.001 |
| History of alcohol abuse, n (%) | 289 (4.2) | 501 (1.9) | 790 (2.4) | <0.001 |
| History of bleeding, n (%) | 108 (1.4) | 916 (3.0) | 1024 (2.6) | <0.001 |
| Kidney disease, n (%) | 225 (3.3) | 3813 (14.2) | 4038 (12.0) | <0.001 |
| NSAID/Cox-2 inhibitor, n (%) | 2052 (26.0) | 9138 (29.4) | 11 190 (28.7) | <0.001 |
| Antithrombotic at diagnosis of AF, n (%) | ||||
| Antiplatelet | 2588 (32.8) | 11 496 (37.0) | 14 084 (36.2) | <0.001 |
| NOAC | 1631 (20.7) | 7173 (23.1) | 8804 (22.6) | <0.001 |
| VKA | 2531 (32.1) | 13 960 (45.0) | 16 491 (42.4) | <0.001 |
Note: The baseline analyses for the low-to-intermediate group provided midway results, between the very low to low risk and high risk groups, which are detailed in full in the appendix.
P value comparison of very low to low risk versus higher risk patients.
*Median with 25th and 75th percentiles for continuous variables, N (%) for categorical.
†Very low to low risk is defined by a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 or 1 for men and 1 or 2 for women.
‡The term unclassified is used when the type of AF could not be accurately determined in the short interval between diagnosis of AF and enrolment into the study.
§Rest of world: Australia, Egypt and South Africa.
AF, atrial fibrillation; BMI, body mass index; CABG, coronary artery bypass graft; Cox-2, cyclooxygenase-2; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; GARFIELD-AF, Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; NOAC, new (or non-vitamin K) oral anticoagulant; SBP, systolic blood pressure; VKA, vitamin K antagonists.