|
A new
study out of Germany has uncovered evidence that getting
stuck in traffic prompts an even more serious and immediate
consequence -- a much higher risk for suffering a heart
attack. The finding does not isolate which particular virtue
of road congestion -- stress, pollution, car exhaust or
noise -- might be the driving force behind the apparent
cardiovascular threat. However, after a four-year analysis
of nearly 1,500 heart attack cases, the authors came to the
conclusion that making one's way through traffic -- whether
as a driver, a rider of public transport, or even a
bicyclist -- seems to more than triple the chances for
experiencing a heart attack in the first hour immediately
following exposure. "We found that when people are
participating in traffic, they have a threefold increased
risk to experience a heart a attack one hour later," said
study author, head of the research unit at the Institute of
Epidemiology in Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, Germany, and an
adjunct associate professor in Harvard's School of Public
Health. "For someone with a very low risk for a heart
attack, this doesn't mean much," the scientist noted. "But
for someone already at a higher risk for a heart attack --
because of lifestyle issues such as smoking or being
overweight, or perhaps because of genetic makeup -- then
traffic might be an additional stressor that could cause a
heart attack to occur at this time." One-quarter of the
patients were women, and the average age was 60. All had
suffered a heart attack between 1999 and 2003, and all were
subsequently interviewed to recall experiences in the four
days leading up to the event that might have triggered the
first symptoms. The researchers found that 8 percent of the
heart attacks were specifically attributable to having been
in traffic. In addition to identifying a 3.2 times higher
risk for suffering a heart attack within the first hour
after traffic exposure, the research team found that even
six hours after exposure, there remained a significant --
though small -- increase in risk. Being the driver of a car
was the most common form of traffic exposure, followed by
being a rider of public transportation and/or bicycling.
Patients who had a prior history of angina -- as well as
women, elderly men and the unemployed -- appeared to be
particularly sensitive to the observed increase in risk.
Women, in fact, were found to have a five times greater risk
for a heart attack following such exposure -- a gender bump
the researchers suggested might be rooted in physiological
differences or simply a reflection of the smaller number of
women included in the study. Going forward, the researchers
have embarked on further studies to try to determine exactly
what aspects of traffic could account for the connection.
|