"Atrial fibrillation is one of the major risk factor for ischemic stroke and individuals who are suffering a stroke five-fold risk compared with the general population," said Dr.dr. Yoga Yuniadi, SpJP (K) in a media briefing to commemorate World Stroke Day here on Thursday.
There are five major stroke risk factors that can be managed to prevent stroke is high blood pressure (hypertension), smoking habits, physical inactivity, diabetes and atrial fibrillation.
Stroke or heart disease often called the cause of death is highest for the category of non-communicable diseases where an estimated one person in the world dies every six seconds because of a stroke, or nearly six million people annually.
In addition to high mortality, stroke patients who survived then suffered a physical disability that is not only lowers the quality of their lives but also family life and those around him. Likewise, the economic implications caused by the patient can not become fully productive.
Meanwhile, people are asked to be aware of an irregular heartbeat, because if the stroke, the impact is usually more severe compared with other risk factors.
"A stroke associated with atrial fibrillation is generally more severe, the impact is much worse and longer treatment compared with patients who did not have atrial fibrillation," said Yoga.
Atrial fibrillation is thought to be the main cause of 15-20 percent higher overall incidence of stroke and stroke severity suffered by patients with atrial fibrillation indicated that they will experience a decline in quality of life that is more drastic than those who do not.
"Therefore, patients with atrial fibrillation is a group that should get serious treatment to reduce the overall burden of stroke in the community," said Yoga.
In commemoration of World Stroke Day is celebrated every October 20, Stroke Foundation of Indonesia and PT Bayer Indonesia launched the "Beat the Risk" through various forms of activities such as development of online educational sites, programs on radio talk shows as well as free health tests to detect fibrillation the atrium.
"World Stroke Day celebration is a good momentum to increase public awareness of the dangers of stroke and jointly launched the action to combat it," said Chief Executive of the Stroke Foundation of Indonesia Haryono Suyono.
Meanwhile, Director of PT Bayer Indonesia Doumit Allen said that the campaign was part of efforts to provide and disseminate information to the public about atrial fibrillation.
"After that, expected to raise awareness of the importance of early detection and treatment of atrial fibrillation for stroke prevention," he said.
The main objective of the management of atrial fibrillation is called Yoga is to reduce long-term risks arising from those conditions, especially stroke. Prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation can be done through pharmacological therapy to reduce the risk of blood clots.
