KEY POINTS
- Data shows more heart attacks and stroke hospitalizations in the two days right after the 2016 presidential election
- Sociopolitical stress may have triggered the cardiovascular events, researchers say
- According to a recent survey, many people see the political climate of the country as a “significant source of stress”
Can political events trigger heart ailments? A new study found that more people were hospitalized with acute cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the days immediately following the 2016 presidential election than before it.
For the new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Kaiser Permanente, researchers looked at acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke diagnoses, as well as emergency diagnoses of chest pains and unstable angina among adults in the Kaiser Permanente data, which includes 4.6 million people.
The researchers compared data from the two days right after the election with the same two days in