The researchers have their results published (“Cardiovascular Events during World Cup Soccer”) in the Thursday, January 31, 2008 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

In the paper, they associate emotional stress for causing heart attacks and other cardiac emergencies, along with the increased frequency of heart problems from such common sports-watching activities as overeating, eating junk food, drinking too much alcoholic beverages, and smoking.

The Steinbeck team includes: Ute Wilbert-Lampen, David Leistner, Sonja Greven, Tilmann Pohl, Sebastian Sper, Christoph Völker, Denise Güthlin, Andrea Plasse, Andreas Knez, and Helmut Küchenhoff.

Studying 4,279 patients, they found increased frequencies of heart attacks, cardiac arrests, episodes of irregular heartbeat, and activations of automatic implanted defibrillators when watching sporting events where the viewers are emotionally involved.

The researchers found an increase of such problems during the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup competition in Germany from June 9 to July 9, 2006.

Just how much of an increased chance of heart problems did people have during the sporting event? Please read on.