Patient frailty among patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) is associated with adverse health outcomes and increased risk of mortality. Additional evidence is needed to evaluate effective and safe NVAF treatment in this patient population.
This subgroup analysis of the ARISTOPHANES study compared the risk of stroke/systemic embolism (S/SE) and major bleeding (MB) among frail NVAF patients prescribed non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) or warfarin.
This comparative retrospective observational study of frail, older NVAF patients who initiated apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, or warfarin from 01JAN2013-30SEP2015 was conducted using Medicare and 3 US commercial claims databases. To compare each drug, 6 propensity-score-matched (PSM) cohorts were created. Patient cohorts were pooled from 4 databases after PSM. Cox models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) of S/SE and MB.
Among NVAF patients, 34% (N=150,487) met frailty criteria. Apixaban and rivaroxaban were associated with a lower risk of S/SE vs warfarin (apixaban: HR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.55-0.69; rivaroxaban: HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72-0.87). For MB, apixaban (HR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.57-0.66) and dabigatran (HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.70-0.89) were associated with a lower risk and rivaroxaban (HR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.08-1.21) was associated with a higher risk vs warfarin.
Among this cohort of frail NVAF patients, NOACs were associated with varying rates of stroke/SE and MB compared to warfarin. Due to the lack of real-world data regarding OAC treatment in frail patients, these results may inform clinical practice in the treatment of this patient population.

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