Setting and data collection
RECRUITMENT
Patients from two Danish university hospital out-patient clinics in the Capital Region of Denmark were screened consecutively for eligibility. Nurses from the clinics recruited patients and their family members when having a consultation with the patient in the outpatient clinic. The recruitment period was highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which interrupted the study period due to the many lockdowns forcing the intervention to be paused repeatedly. The COVID-19 pandemic also challenged delivery of any interventions and care because patients and their families were allowed to visit the hospital only in acute cases from mid-March 2020 to mid-May 2020 and from December 2020 to January 2021. Furthermore, during the last six months of the intervention, patients and family members had to carry a face mask and comply with the distancing requirements of national COVID-19 guidelines. Because of COVID-19, many patients were afraid to visit the hospital, and several patients preferred telephone consultations or postponed their appointments. Therefore, the actual number of patients with AF and appointments in the out-patient clinic was lower than expected before COVID-19. Nevertheless, we found that patients and their families did not decline to participate in this study due to COVID-19; they were simply more careful when deciding when and how to receive care at the hospital.The inclusion criterion was recently diagnosed AF (< 6 months) according to the ESC guidelines [All patients were encouraged to identify a family member who would take part in the intervention. The concept of family was defined as Study data were collected and managed using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) electronic data capture tools hosted in the Capital Region of Denmark [