August 18, 2023- People who have had a heart attack often report pain about a year later. Moderate or extreme pain after a heart attack – most commonly pain due to other health conditions – may help predict the likelihood of death over the next 8.5 years, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.
According to the American Heart Association, a heart attack happens about every 40 seconds in the United States. Data from 2005 to 2014 estimated the annual incidence of heart attack in the United States was 605,000 new heart attacks and 200,000 recurrent heart attacks. Average age at the first heart attack was 65.6 years for men and 72 years for women.
Adults in the study were younger than 75 years of age (average age was 62, 24.5% women) and had heart attacks between 2004 to 2013. Data on pain from a two-month follow-up visit and a participant questionnaire completed one year after their heart attack was assessed to gauge if they had no, moderate or extreme pain. The pain they reported was more likely to be due to other health conditions.
In this study, participants who said they had extreme pain after a heart attack were more than twice as likely to die during the study period compared to those who reported no pain.