Jochen Senges
University of Heidelberg, Germany
Title: Mass media Campaign to improve poor diagnosis and poor medical adherence in atrial fibrillation
Biography
Biography: Jochen Senges
Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac rhythm disorder and affects mainly older people. Poor diagnosis of AF: Large registries (Gloria-AF) have clearly shown that about 2thirds of patients in Western Europe with newly diagnosis nonvalvular AF are detected asymptomatic/minimally symptomatic. The rate of previous stroke in these patients is more than twice as high as in symptomatic patients, despite no difference in CHA2DS2-VASc-Score. This may be explained by a longer but subclinical and therefore undiagnosed AF history. Poor medical adherence: poor medication adherence is the second most important factor underlying strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation. Various major studies have demonstrated that less than half of AF-patients are treated with guideline antithrombotic medication. Mass media campaign: these results underline the importance for both: public programs to detect non-valvular AF in the older population but also public education programs that should focus on patients poor understanding of the importance for sustained antithrombotic medication adherence to prevent stroke. The ARENA study includes a longstanding mass media campaign over one year to improve diagnosis and medical adherence in atrial fibrillation. Actually over 10.000 AF-patients are documented and first results will be presented at this meeting.