Figure 3
The risks of incident atrial fibrillation by various subgroups. Most subgroup analyses showed consistency with the main results, whereas age strata, sex, and eGFR trends showed significant interactions. For the subgroups of age strata, an increasing trend for developing AF risk was observed in older subjects. Males showed a higher risk of AF in those with higher eGFR variability. Among the subgroups by eGFR trends, only the subjects with a decreased eGFR trend had a significantly higher risk of AF in those with higher eGFR variability. Abbreviation: AF = atrial fibrillation; CI = confidence interval; CKD = chronic kidney disease; eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate calculated by MDRD equation; GFR-VIM = variability independent of mean of eGFR; HR = hazard ratio, adjusted by Model 2 (age, sex, smoking status, alcohol consumption, regular physical activity, low income level, body-mass index, hypertension, diabetes, and baseline eGFR); IR = incidence rate in 1,000 person-years. *Each subgroup represents the 4th quartile of GFR-VIM with a suggested condition, whereas the corresponding lower three quartiles served as a reference. †Individuals with decreased or increased eGFR trends were defined as the subgroups with the last eGFR lower or higher than 5% of the mean. Other cases were identified as maintained.
