Physical activity is the focus of disease management in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), and different types and intensities of physical activity have different impacts on the health status of patients; however, the current distribution of physical activity types in patients with AF is not clearly characterized.

To explore differences in the distribution of the daily physical activity energy expenditure in patients with AF and the influencing factors.

A total of 300 AF patients newly admitted to the Department of Cardiology Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University for elective catheter ablation from July to December 2023 were enrolled. General patient information was collected. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Long Form (IPAQ-L) was used to assess the level of physical activity, the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF) to evaluate fear of disease progression, the Cancer Acceptance Scale-Revised (CAS-R) to assess perceived control, and the Family Apathy Index (FAI) to gauge family care. A latent profile analysis was conducted on energy expenditure from various types of physical activity among AF patients. Starting from a one-class model, the number of classes was incrementally increased to determine the best-fitting model. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was employed to investigate the impact of various factors on different latent profiles.

Based on IPAQ-L scores, 80 patients (26.7%) had low, 63 (21.0%) had moderate, and 157 (52.3%) had high levels of physical activity. The latent profile analysis of patients' physical activity energy expenditure categorized them into two profiles: low energy expenditure-primarily sedentary (n=198) and high energy expenditure-primarily occupational physical activity (n=102). Univariate analysis revealed statistically significant differences in age, education level, occupation, family monthly income per capita, and scores on the FoP-Q-SF, CAS-R, and FAI between the two profiles (P<0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis indicated that age 40-59 years (OR=0.280, 95%CI=0.087-0.899, P=0.017), bachelor's degree or higher (OR=0.331, 95%CI=0.124-0.883, P=0.027), mental labor (OR=0.315, 95%CI=0.121-0.817, P=0.032), retirement (OR=0.151, 95%CI=0.050-0.452, P<0.001), FoP-Q-SF score (OR=1.086, 95%CI=1.036-1.139, P<0.001), CAS-R score (OR=0.899, 95%CI=0.820-0.985, P=0.022), and FAI score (OR=0.828, 95%CI=0.707-0.969, P=0.018) were influencing factors of the latent profiles of physical activity (PA) energy expenditure (P<0.05) .

There are different latent profiles of physical activity energy expenditure among AF patients, with heterogeneous distribution characteristics across profiles. Patients aged 40-59, with bachelor's degree or higher, engaged in mental labor, retired, possessing strong perceived control, and receiving high family care are more likely to be classified as low energy expenditure-primarily sedentary. Interventions can be tailored based on the characteristics of different physical activity energy expenditure profiles and influencing factors to promote appropriate and scientific physical activity.