Background
: Atrial fibrillation is the commonest arrhythmia seen in clincial practice. However, there have been no epidemiologic data on its prevalence in general populaton of Korea. We performed this study to investigate the prevalene of atrial fibrillaton in Korea.

Methods : From March 1, 1999 to July 31, 2000, Kangwon Branch, Korea Association of Health(KAH) performed electrocardiograms to investigate the health status in the general public in Kangwon Province. We analqzed these data by chi-square(χ²) test.

Results : A total of 45,133 persons participated in the health screening performed by KAH. The number of persons above 40 years old was 13,768, with men and women 6,367(46.2%) and 7,401(53.8%) respectively. Prevalence among those above 40 years old was 0.72% and the prevalence among men, 0.96% (61 persons) was significantly higher than that of women, 0.51% (38 persons)(p<0.01). In the group above 60 years old with the prevalence of 1.24%, a similar phenomenon was observed with 1.57% (40 persons) in men and 0.97% (29 persons) in women (p<0.05).

Conclusion : Prevalence of atrial fibrillation became higher as age increased, specifically in persons older than 40 years.