Most dangerous time of year for the heart

DEATHS FROM heart-related causes tend to spike around the holidays, and the cold weather may not really be to blame, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on more than 7,38,000 deaths from 1988 to 2013 in New Zealand, where Christmas comes during summer. Overall, about 1,97,000 of these fatalities were heart-related.

Outside of the hospital, there were 4.2 percent more heart-related deaths during the last week of December and the first week of January — the period encompassing Christmas and New Year’s Eve — than would be expected if the holidays didn’t affect death rates, the study found.

Previous research has documented a spike in deaths from natural causes during the holiday season in the United States, where Christmas tends to fall during the coldest time of year and death rates are already seasonally high due to influenza, researchers note in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

For the current study, researchers analysed death trends in New Zealand, where cardiac death rates tend to be lowest during the summertime in general. The study is observational, and doesn’t prove the holidays or the weather directly cause an uptick in fatalities or heart-related deaths, the authors note.

It’s possible, though, that heart-related deaths during the holiday season might spike due to seasonal stress, changes in diet and alcohol consumption or lower staffing at hospitals, the authors speculate.

At least some of the increase in cardiac deaths around the holidays might also occur because people put off needed care during this time of year or avoid seeking treatment for acute illness because they’re traveling away from home, the researchers also point out.

In particular, other research has documented a link between excessive drinking and a greater likelihood that people will develop or need treatment for heart problems, said Dr Tim Stockwell, a researcher at the University of Victoria in British Columbia who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Many other factors have been speculated about as contributing to the phenomenon of more cardiac deaths at holiday periods,” Stockwell said by email.

“This new study is able to rule out the cold weather hypothesis as the sole cause since the study looked at the Christmas holiday in New Zealand which falls in the summer,”

Stockwell added. “There was some support for the theory that there is less access to healthcare during the holiday due to the effect being more pronounced for deaths occurring outside of hospital, and increased emotional stress, dietary changes and additional stress are also consistent with the observed results.” REUTERS