The patient path to a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Patient Path to a diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation: a qualitative study in primary care
IRAS ID
317170
Contact name
Patricia Apenteng
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat. AF greatly increases the risk of stroke and people with AF are five times more likely to have a stroke compared to people without AF. Many people with AF are prescribed medicines known as anticoagulants, which help to reduce blood clots forming and causing an AF-related stroke.
AF can be difficult to detect because the irregular heartbeat is not present at all times and not all patients have symptoms. However patients who experience symptoms also experience delay in getting a diagnosis. Currently, about 500,000 people with AF in England have not been diagnosed.
This study aims to explore patient journeys to AF diagnosis, focusing on identifying factors that might enable earlier diagnosis and management. The study will be conducted in 20 GP practices in the West Midlands. We will carry out interviews with patients who have received a recent diagnosis of AF to understand the range of symptoms they experienced prior to diagnosis and how AF was detected. We will also carry out interviews with GPs and practice nurses to understand the challenges of identifying AF in practice. We will then hold a meeting with a workshop with a small group of stakeholders including patients, AF experts, GPs, practice nurses and individuals from relevant charities to understand the learning from the findings. Following that we plan to develop educational materials from this learning for the public and healthcare professionals.
The findings will be shared with the public, healthcare professionals and the NHS in a number of ways including publications, presentations at conferences for GPs, social media, and posters for display in GP practices.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
22/ES/0040
Date of REC Opinion
22 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion