Football spectatorship and selected acute cardiovascular events: lack of a population‑scale association in Poland

Abstract

Background The status of football spectatorship–induced emotional stress as a risk factor for acute cardiovascular events remains a matter of dispute. aims This study aimed to investigate the relationship between football spectatorship and the incidence of selected acute cardiovascular events in the Polish male population. methods Events that occurred in male patients aged 35 years and older in Poland during 3 tournaments (2012 and 2016 European Championships and 2018 World Cup) were retrospectively analyzed based on hospital admission codes (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision [ICD‑10]) obtained from the Polish National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia). The following primary diagnoses were of interest: acute myocardial infarction (AMI; I21), sudden cardiac arrest (I46), sudden arrhythmias (I47–I49). The corresponding dates in the years before and after the tournaments constituted the reference periods. results A total of 255 383 patients were included in this study. There were no significant differences in the incidence of events between the combined exposure and reference periods: relative risk [RR] = 1.05 (95% CI, 0.97–1.14; P = 0.2) for AMI, RR = 1.08 (95% CI, 0.87–1.35; P = 0.47) for sudden cardiac arrest, and RR = 1.02 (95% CI, 0.98–1.06; P = 0.32) for sudden arrhythmias. Individual tournament analyses revealed a higher incidence of AMI (RR = 1.2; 95% CI, 1.12–1.3; P <0.001) during the World Cup. However, day‑by‑ ‑day analysis for the World Cup did not show a higher incidence of AMI on match versus match‑free days. conclusions Emotional stress evoked by football spectatorship is insufficiently potent to precipitate a population‑scale increase in the incidence of selected acute cardiovascular events.