Wearable Devices, Health Care Use, and Psychological Well‐Being in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting >33 million adults worldwide.This growing public health problem is costly to individuals (eg, increased risk of stroke, cognitive dysfunction, heart failure, poor quality of life, hospitalizations, premature death), their communities (eg, disability‐related job loss), and the health care system (eg, rising cost of care).Thus, identifying novel strategies to enhance clinical management of AF is critical to reduce current trends.Patients were classified as wearable users if they reported any history or current use of a wearable device on the study survey. The approximate date (month and year) their wearable device was purchased served as the index date. Individuals who did not have a history of wearable device use were included as a control group in analyses that compared characteristics and patterns of health care use of patients with AF who did and did not use wearables. As described below, the same date was used as the index date for wearable users and their matched control.