Why the study?
Does watching stressful sporting events increase the risk of hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases in the Australian population?
Does watching stressful sporting events increase the risk of hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases in the Australian population?
Watching stressful football matches does not appear to increase the risk of acute cardiovascular events in the Australian population.
No need to caution Australian patients about viewing football matches; leaves open generalizability and causality in other populations.
OBJECTIVE: To review whether watching football increases the population cardiac event risk in New South Wales. DESIGN: Analysis of hospital admissions for acute myocardial infarction, other cardiovascular disease, and other acute injuries at the time of two stressful sporting events in NSW in 2005: the Sydney Swans playing in the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final, and the Socceroos' penalty shoot-out in their World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay. RESULTS: There were no increases in any of the studied admission events at the time of, or in the days immediately following, these football matches. CONCLUSIONS: Australians appear to be resistant to acute stressors associated with watching sporting events, possibly due to higher rates of motivational deficiency disorder (MoDeD) than in European populations.
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Bauman et al. (2006) studied this question.
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