Correlating Patient-Reported Outcomes and Cardiac Event-Free Survival Time in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: A Prospective Study

BACKGROUND— Repeated episodes of atrial fibrillation (AF) can shorten event-free survival time in patients. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) directly reflect the health status of patients. However, the relationship between PROs and cardiac event-free survival remains unclear. OBJECTIVE— This study aimed to investigate the status of PROs and their correlation with cardiac event-free survival time in patients with AF. METHODS— This study was a prospective study. Patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation treated in the Department of Cardiology of one three third-class hospital in Yancheng from May 2023 to April 2024 were enrolled. The investigation was performed using general information questionnaire and AF-specific questionnaire 6 (AF6). At baseline, demographic and clinical data of the patients were collected. Major adverse cardiovascular events and one-year event-free survival time after discharge were obtained by telephone follow-ups and review of medical records. RESULTS — Among the 197 patients investigated, the mean age was (74.1 ± 9.0) years old, and 106 (53.8%) were women. The mean AF6 score was (24.29 ± 8.33), with over 50% of patients scoring ≥ 1 point on all six items. A significant correlation was observed between cardiac function grading and PROs (r = 0.360, P < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank tests demonstrated that patients with poor PROs had significantly worse cardiac event-free survival (P = 0.043). CONCLUSION —The PROs of patients with AF were at a moderate level. Poor PROs were associated with the shorter cardiac event-free survival times. These findings highlight the requirement for intervention studies aimed at improving PROs. Clinical trial number Not applicable.