Objective: The aim was to analyze the characteristics, treatment patterns, persistence, and clinical outcomes of Colombian patients with Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation (NVAF) under treatment with oral anticoagulants (OAs).

Methods: Retrospective cohort in patients with NVAF, aged >18 years and of any sex, with a first prescription of an OA (index) between January/2013 and June/2018, with a follow-up until June/2019. Data from the clinical history, patient characteristics, pharmacological variables, treatment changes, cerebrovascular events and safety were searched. Descriptive analyzes were carried out.

Results: A total of 2076 patients with NVAF were included. The 57.0% were women and the mean age was 73.3±10.4 years. Patients were followed for a mean of 2.3±1.6 years. The 8.7% received warfarin before the index date. The most frequent OA was rivaroxaban (n=950; 45.8%), followed by warfarin (n=459; 22.1%) and apixaban (n=405; 19.5%). Hypertension was present in 87.5%, diabetes mellitus in 22.6% and severe renal failure in 5.2%. The mean CHA₂DS₂-VASc Score was 3.6±1.5. The main efficacy and safety outcomes were stroke (3.1%) and gastrointestinal bleeding (2.0%) respectively. From these, most events were in patients using warfarin at index (3.5% for stroke and 4.1% for gastrointestinal bleeding). The 18.0% of patients changed the index OA during follow-up, while 11.7% discontinued the medication.

Conclusions: The patients with NVAF in this study were mainly older adults with multiple comorbidities and high CHA₂DS₂-VASc score. The frequency of clinical events was similar to other observational studies, with low percentage of discontinuation.