Obesity may increase risk of developing a rapid and irregular heart rate, called atrial fibrillation, which can lead to stroke, heart failure and other complications, says a study of nearly 70,00 patients.

The findings, published in the journal American Journal of Cardiology, showed that people with obesity had a 40 per cent higher chance of developing atrial fibrillation than people without obesity. The results suggest that for patients with both obesity and atrial fibrillation, losing weight has the potential to help treat and manage their atrial fibrillation, said Andrew Foy, Assistant Professor at Penn State College of Medicine in the US. "If you have both atrial fibrillation and obesity, treating obesity will go a long way in treating and managing your atrial fibrillation," Foy said.

"And if you have obesity, and lose weight through diet, exercise, or even surgery, that will help reduce your risk of developing chronic conditions like atrial fibrillation," he added. Atrial fibrillation happens when the electrical currents in the heart go haywire and the top chambers of the heart quiver or flutter. The condition puts patients at a higher risk for developing other heart complications.

While previous research has linked obesity and atrial fibrillation, Foy said he wanted to explore the connection in a larger sample of younger patients. The researchers followed a group of 67,278 patients -- half with obesity and half without -- for eight years. The average participant age was 43.8 and nearly 77 per cent were women. People with obesity are 40 per cent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, while they are 45 per cent and 51 per cent more likely to develop hypertension or diabetes, respectively, the findings showed. The researchers also found that people with obesity are almost just as likely to develop atrial fibrillation as people with hypertension or diabetes.