Did you know that variations in the stock market could be associated with the occurrence of local heart attacks? As bizarre as it sounds, a new report from the Duke University Medical Center apparently investigates the likely association between instabilities in the stock market and the rate of local heart attacks.
The preliminary data examination seemingly displayed an augmented occurrence of heart attacks from the Duke Databank for cardiovascular disease from January 2008 to July 2009. After performing an inclusive study particularly observing the link with the stock market during that time, there appeared to be a trend between augmented heart attacks with stock market declines. Nevertheless, when outcomes were said to be adjusted to account for an identified seasonal boost in heart attacks during winter months, the association was supposedly less clear.
“In the unadjusted findings we saw a strong trend. However, previous studies have not done these analyses with a seasonal correction. Previous research has shown that myocardial infarctions (MIs) occur more frequently during winter months than summer months. When we corrected for seasonality, we learned the time of year could be impacting our results,†commented, Christopher O’Connor, MD, Director of the Duke Heart Center and senior author of the paper.
After the U.S. experienced an acute economic catastrophe in the fall of 2008, the Duke scientists formulated a pilot, single site observational study to investigate whether the economic crisis and stock market instability affected cardiovascular (CV) event rates. Some studies have apparently surveyed as to how economic trends may influence cardiovascular events.
During initial assessment, when the facts were said to be conspired against the daily NASDAQ opening values during the decline duration, it presumably disclosed an inverse association between heart attacks and stock markets.
Nonetheless, when more scrupulous testing was utilized to particularly examine the association with stock market values and eradicate the seasonable inconsistency, the study question could no longer be replied.
The experts mention that the study apparently had other shortcomings, counting its sample size, its regional bias, and the huge inconsistency of MI events in the Duke database. They intend to carry out a bigger study over a longer duration to verify whether a connection between the stock market and heart attack rates is present.
The report was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology.