Irregular heartbeat not clearly linked to deaths in older athletes
The adjusted relative death rate was 1.23 for athletes with an irregular heartbeat versus those without it, but the uncertainty range included no difference.
Limit: Atrial fibrillation was self-reported on questionnaires
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A prospective observational study followed 4,564 Norwegians aged 65 or older: 549 veteran endurance athletes, including 46 women, and 4,015 people representing the general population, including 2,148 women. The non-elite athletes still competed in an annual 54-kilometer cross-country ski race. Participants reported atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, on questionnaires at enrollment. Researchers tracked deaths through national registries.
Over a median 16 years, 110 athletes and 2,272 people in the population cohort died. Athletes had a 63% lower adjusted death rate than the population cohort. Atrial fibrillation was associated with higher mortality in the population cohort, but not significantly higher mortality among athletes. However, the analysis did not establish that this association differed between athletes and other participants.
Why it matters
For people who continue endurance sports into older age, the study addresses whether atrial fibrillation carries the same long-term mortality implications as in the general population.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish cause and effect, and the athlete estimate allowed both lower and higher mortality. Atrial fibrillation was self-reported, and this congress abstract included only 46 female athletes.
The paper
Baerum Hospital Vestre Viken Trust; UiT The Arctic University of Norway
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
