Start AF screening at 55 for Indigenous Australians, experts say

Opportunistic screening for AF should start 10 years earlier for Indigenous Australians, an expert panel has recommended.

A systematic review published in The Medical Journal of Australia this week found that AF onset in Indigenous Australians started almost 16 years earlier on average compared with non-Indigenous Australians.

It also found that the average age of a stroke was 51-62 for Indigenous Australians, compared with 62-78 for non-Indigenous Australians.

The UNSW Sydney-led researchers then convened an expert panel, including cardiologists, epidemiologists and the chair of the 2018 AF guideline, which set the opportunistic screening starting age at 65 for all Australians.

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