March 24, 2009 – Getting caught in a traffic jam could increase the risk of a heart attack, German researchers say. This would be the case not only when driving a car, but also when taking public transit or riding a bicycle.
The researchers conducted their study on 1,454 patients who had a heart attack between 1999 and 20031. All of them survived the heart attack. They were questioned about their activities and their traffic during the four days leading up to the event. The patients were on average 60 years old and 25% were women.
The subjects who got stuck in a traffic jam were three times more likely to have a heart attack within an hour than the others. About 8% of heart attacks were directly attributable to road traffic, the researchers estimate. Women, elderly men, the unemployed, and patients with a history of angina were most at risk.
The researchers were surprised when they first observed this link, in 2004, on a smaller sample of participants. Their recent study confirms their preliminary results. The combination of stress and contact with polluted air could explain the increased risk of heart attack, they hypothesize.
The results of the study were presented at the last annual conference of the American Heart Association.
Emmanuelle Bergeron – PasseportSanté.net
According to The New York Times and e! Science
1. Peters A, Von Klot S, et al. Times Spent in Traffic and the Onset of Myocardial Infarction. Study presented at the American Heart Association 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
