(CN) — Every passionate football World Cup viewer — from Montevideo to Nairobi — has lived through their share of distress or jubilation over the decades the international tournament has been played. But researchers in Germany identified a health trend during the 2014 games that veers significantly from the typical reactions die-hard fans have.
High-stakes, entertaining sporting events can induce excitement, anger and stress for fans cheering on their favored teams or nations.
When the world’s best male footballers lined up to play in FIFA’s 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the games triggered a rush of emotions for the nearly 35 million people who tuned in worldwide.
Researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany wanted to know more about how the health of fans’ hearts in the European nation fared during the tournament.
Their study collected data on the number of admissions for heart attacks — also called myocardial infarction — and in-hospital deaths from heart attacks during the 2014 tournament.
Researchers also analyzed relevant health data for similar time periods between the years 2011 and 2015.
Heart disease and its acute manifestation as myocardial infarction is the most common cause of death worldwide and accounts for approximately 20% of all deaths in Europe and the United States.
Although there was no difference in the number of hospitalized heart attack patients during the months of June and July for the years 2011 to 2015, the number of hospitalizations for heart attacks was highest in 2014, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.
The authors wrote the findings may suggest large sporting events induce stress and emotions that may affect the occurrence of heart attacks or other cardiovascular conditions.
“Although large sporting events are substantially less dramatic events than environmental catastrophes, studies have shown that these events could also affect the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases as well as related mortality,” the study said. “Our data may help to find better ways of planning hospital capacities, which is essential for delivering sufficient capacity at the right time point to meet future enormous health-care challenges.”
The number of hospital admissions for heart attacks in Germany was higher compared to the same time period --- June 12 to July 13 --- in the years 2013 and 2015.
Researchers noted 18,479 hospital admissions due to heart attacks during the 2014 World Cup, a figure 3.7% higher than the same 31-day period in 2015.
The 2014 total is 2.1% higher than in 2013 and 5.4% higher than between July 14 and Aug. 14, 2014.
When it came to deaths from heart attacks, researchers found the World Cup was not associated with higher rates compared to previous years, except for the timeframe during the final match between Germany and Argentina.
In the final, Germany triumphed by a 1-0 margin in extra time over an Argentine team led by football legend Lionel Messi.
“Games that involved the German national team did not seem to have an effect on admissions or mortality,” researchers said in a statement released with the study. “The authors detected no differences in types or rates of treatment for (myocardial infarction) between the match days of the German national team compared to other days of the World Cup period.”
Researchers did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
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