Conclusions
On average, women with AF in CABANA consistently reported moderate‐to severe AF‐related baseline impairments in QOL with lower baseline scores than those reported on average by men. Following randomized treatment with ablation or drug‐based therapy, QOL improvements were observed in both sexes for both treatment arms, with greater average benefit reported by those assigned to an ablation‐based strategy. The overall treatment benefit effect size was largely driven by the treatment responses of those with poorer baseline QOL. Despite clinically effective ablation, however, women averaged persistently lower QOL scores than men despite a similar relative benefit from ablation and a similar distribution of symptoms.