Banking crises cause heart attacks

by Gill Montia

Story link: Banking crises cause heart attacks

A team social epidemiologist from the University of Cambridge has published what it claims to be the first study into the relationship between a banking crisis and mortality.

According to the research, the stress created by a global banking crisis could kill thousands of people around the world.

High-income countries such as the UK and US could see a 6.4% rise in deaths from heart disease, while in low-income countries mortality rates could increase by 26%. In both instances the elderly are most at risk.

The report, entitled “Can a bank crisis break your heart?” states: “If a severe banking crisis were to hit, our results suggest that it would cause anywhere from 1,280 to 5,130 additional heart disease deaths” in the UK.

The conclusions are based on data from the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, which allowed a comparison between mortality rates and recorded banking crises between 1960 and 2002.

According to the research, older people are most vulnerable to sudden death brought on by stress, because they are more likely to suffer risk factors such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.

In addition, they are the group most likely to feel threatened when their savings are at risk.

This theory is certainly borne out by the Northern Rock crisis, when many of those queuing outside the bank’s branches last autumn were elderly customers.

David Stuckler, who headed the research, comments: “This report shows that containing hysteria and preventing widespread panic is important not only to stop these incidents leading to a systemic bank crisis, but also to prevent potentially thousands of heart disease deaths.”