
Losing a job or taking a big pay cut is hard on more than just your checkbook — it might drastically increase your risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or death. A new study finds that people who endure large swings in income over the years are much more likely to develop heart disease or suffer a premature death. “We found that individuals in the highest third of income volatility — the individuals with the most fluctuation in income — had an almost double risk of cardiovascular disease and death in the subsequent 10 years, compared with people who had the least fluctuation in income,” said lead researcher Tali Elfassy. She is an assistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. People who had the most volatile incomes between 1990 and 2005 were a little more than twice as likely to develop heart disease and 78 percent more likely to die from any cause during the following decade, compared with people with the most stable incomes, Elfassy and her colleagues found. Further, people who suffered two or more income drops during that same period were 2.5 times more likely to develop heart disease and 92 percent more likely to die from any cause, compared with those who never had their income go down, the study findings showed. The study only found… read on >