Study finds spike in heart attacks since start of Greek debt crisis
Greece’s heart attack rate has gone up by 29 percent since the onset of the country’s financial crisis, a new study has suggested.
The study, which was presented on the Open Democracy website, was based on regular checks on 22,093 patients at Kalamata’s General Hospital over a period of eight years. Experts recorded 1,084 heart attacks between 2008-2012 compared with just 841 in the four years before the outbreak of the crisis.
The spike was more dramatic among women as heart attacks rose by more than 39 percent and acute myocardial infarctions increased by 51 percent, scientists said.
The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting.
