The Dangers of the World Cup

This week’s blog was meant to be my final look at the dangers of going into hospital. However, in the light of the current “World Cup Fever” and the involvement of our national team, I thought that it is much more relevant to consider instead the dangers of watching football – particularly tonight!

Cardiac Mortality

For more than two decades it has been known that major soccer tournaments can more than double the risk of cardiac emergencies,  This was first reported in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2000 in a paper on the study of cardiovascular mortality among Dutch men during the 1996 European Football Championships. On June 22nd 1996, the day the Netherland’s national team was eliminated by France, there was a 51% increase in cardiac mortality compared with the five days before and after the match.

Penalty shootouts

These may be particularly hazardous. The British Medical Journal in 2002 included a study which looked at the incidence of heart attacks during the 1998 World Cup in France. The risk of being admitted to an English hospital for an acute heart attack increased by 25% on June 30th 1998, the day that England was eliminated by Argentina in a penalty shootout.

Acute heart events

In 2008, a German study of acute cardiovascular events during the 2006 FIFA World Cup was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In one region, among those who had an acute heart illness during a match day, 47% had known coronary disease compared with just 29% at other times.

The effect of winning or losing

From Cadiz, Spain, a study showed that among high-risk individuals – people known to have pre-existing heart disease – cardiac events were more common when their team lost and less common when they won.

Meta-Analyses

The most accurate information about such correlations can be extracted by combining the findings of a number of different studies – so called meta-analysis. A study published in 2020 from a systematic review of all the papers written on the subject confirmed that both fatal and non-fatal cardiac events were more frequent among the spectators of “emotionally charged” soccer matches. This seems particularly important for those attending the matches but also applies to television viewers.

Why?

It has been suggested that moments of intense stress can result in surges of adrenaline pouring into the bloodstream, raising heart rate, blood pressure and irritability of heart muscle and also increasing the likelihood of spasm of the coronary arteries.

What to do about it?

Take precautions! – this is possible at football grounds but less so at home. The Barcelona Stadium report for the 2000-2001 season recorded seven events – one sudden death, four acute heart attacks and two episodes of unstable angina. The recommendation was that football stadiums should have medical teams equipped with cardiac defibrillator, again not very practicable at home. The risk to the individual is very low and only at all likely for those who are extremely excitable and invested in football results.

My own response – I will be going to bed early this evening!