Saturday, April 7, 2012

Is Watching Football Bad for your Heart? In Germany Yes, Italy No

Here are two interesting studies that looked at the relationship of heart attacks and football matches involving national squads.  A 2008 study in the Munich region found a marked increased in heart attacks when the German national team was playing (PDF):
On days of matches involving the German team, the incidence of cardiac emergencies was 2.66 times that during the control period... Viewing a stressful soccer match more than doubles the risk of an acute cardiovascular event.
A 2011 study in Italy found no such relationship among Italians (PDF):
We studied 25 159 hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among the Italian population during three international football competitions: the World Cup 2002, the European Championship 2004 and the World Cup 2006... We did not find an increase in the rates of admission for AMI on the days of football matches involving Italy in either the single competitions or the three competitions combined.
Do Germans carry the weight of their teams fortunes closer to the heart?

H/T Science2.0
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1 comment:

  1. CrazyCrisMay 12, 2012 at 12:24 PM

    It's worse if you're listening to a match over the radio! Our first World Cup living in Spain ('98) my sisters and I wanted to do what many of our friends did: TV on mute and listen to the radio commentators... My mom had us turn it off after 10', said she couldn't handle the stress! :p

    And a Chilean friend of mine told me the tale of an old man who died of a heart attack while listening to a football match! "gooooooool... contra el palo!" One moment you think they scored, the next sorry folks! ;o)

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