Arrhythmia Risk During the 2016 US Presidential Election: The Cost of Stressful Politics.

ABSTRACT: Background Anger and extreme stress can trigger potentially fatal cardiovascular events in susceptible people. Political elections, such as the 2016 US presidential election, are significant stressors. Whether they can trigger cardiac arrhythmias is unknown. Methods and Results In this retrospective case-crossover study, we linked cardiac device data, electronic health records, and historic voter registration records from 2436 patients with implanted cardiac devices. The incidence of arrhythmias during the election was compared with a control period with Poisson regression. We also tested for effect modification by demographics, comorbidities, political affiliation, and whether an individual's political affiliation was concordant with county-level election results. Overall, 2592 arrhythmic

SUBMITTER: Rosman L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8483504 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature