Financial worries may raise heart attack risk by 13-fold

New research due to be presented at the 18th Annual Congress of the South African Heart Association shows that financial stress may increase the risk of a heart attack by 13-fold, and work stress by almost six times.

People worry about money — a lot. According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA), 72 percent of those in the United States felt the weight of financial stress at least once in the past month.

Another sizeable 22 percent said that they experienced extreme financial stress in the past month. "Money and finances have remained the top stressor since [...] 2007," report the APA.

The same organization warn that "stress related to financial issues could have a significant impact on Americans' health and well-being." New research, which will be presented at the 18th Annual Congress of the South African Heart Association, held in Johannesburg, may help us to understand exactly how significant that impact could be.

Lead study author Dr. Denishan Govender, who is an associate lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, explains the motivation for his research.

"The role of psychosocial factors in causing disease," he says, "is a neglected area of study in South Africa, perhaps because there are so many other pressing health challenges such as tuberculosis and HIV."

Studying stress and heart attack risk

In order to study the impact of psychosocial factors on the chances of having a heart attack, Dr. Govender and colleagues examined 106 people who had checked into a large public hospital in Johannesburg for a heart attack.

The researchers also examined a control group of 106 healthy, age-, sex-, and race-matched participants.

Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire inquiring about their psychological well-being, with questions about depression, anxiety, stress, work-related stress, and financial stress included.

To assess and measure the experience of each of these conditions, the team used the Likert scale. The participants' answers were grouped into four categories: no financial stress; mild financial stress; moderate financial stress; and significant financial stress.