Unemployment may increase chances of heart attacks

CHICAGO (AP) - Unemployment hurts more than your wallet - it may damage your heart. That's according to a study linking joblessness with heart attacks in older American workers.

The increased odds weren't huge, although multiple job losses posed as big a threat as smoking, high blood pressure and other conditions that are bad for the heart.

The researchers analysed data on more than 13,000 United States (US) men and women aged 51 to 75 taking part in an ongoing health and retirement survey partly sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. Since 1992, participants have been interviewed every two years about their employment and health.

The new analysis has several limitations. The data show periods of unemployment but don't indicate whether people were fired, laid off, out of work while switching jobs, or had voluntarily left a job.