Death of spouse ups irregular heartbeat risk: study

The death of a partner triggers an irregular heartbeat - a risk factor for stroke and heart failure - for up to a year afterwards, a new study has found.
The results indicate that the risk seems to be greatest among the under 60s and when the loss of the partner was least expected, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark said.
Highly stressful life events boost the risk of a heart attack or stroke, but it is not clear whether this might also be true of irregular heartbeat also known as atrial fibrillation, they said.
Researchers collected information on 88,612 people newly diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and 886,120 healthy people, matched for age and sex, between 1995 and 2014.

They looked at several factors that might influence atrial fibrillation risk. These included time since the bereavement; age and sex; underlying conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes; the health of the partner a month before death; and whether they were single.
Some 17,478 of those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation had lost their partner as had 168,940 of the comparison group.

Underlying illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and associated treatment for these conditions, were more common among those who had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, researchers said.
But the risk of developing an irregular heartbeat for the first time was 41 per cent higher among those who had been bereaved than it was among those who had not experienced such a loss, the findings indicated.

This heightened risk was apparent, irrespective of gender and other underlying conditions.
The risk seemed to be greatest 8 to 14 days following a death, after which it gradually subsided until after a year the risk was similar to that of someone who had not been bereaved, researchers said.
The highest risk was seen among people under the age of 60: they were more than twice as likely to develop atrial fibrillation if they had been bereaved, they said.
The risk also seemed to be greater where the partner's death had been unexpected, as defined by a validated score to assess likelihood of death in the short term according to health status.

Those whose partners were relatively healthy in the month before death were 57 per cent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation. No such increased risk was seen among those whose partners were not healthy and who were expected to die soon, researchers said.
They suggest that acute stress may directly disrupt normal heart rhythms and prompt the production of chemicals involved in inflammation.
The findings were published in the journal Open Heart.