Health security

Heavy snowfall tied to higher heart attack risk for men

Men may be at increased risk for a fatal heart attack after a major snowstorm hits, a Canadian study suggests.

Compared with periods without any snow, men were 16 percent more likely to have a heart attack and 34 percent more likely to die from a heart attack after a storm dropped at least 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) of snow, the study found.

Women, however, didn’t appear to have an increased risk of heart attack after a major snowfall.

While previous studies have linked snow shoveling to an increased risk of heart attacks in the days following major storms, the current study offers fresh insight into this connection by examining several decades of health data for individual patients hospitalized in Quebec.