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The 1999 Ji-Ji (Taiwan) Earthquake as a Trigger for Acute Myocardial Infarction

Received June 23, 2003; revision received Jan. 13, 2004; accepted Jan. 30, 2004. From the Department of Psychiatry, Military Kaohsiung General Hospital, and the Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University. Address reprint requests to Dr. Wang, Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University, Shin-Chuan 1st Rd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan; sywang{at}kmu.edu.tw (e-mail).

The authors evaluated the effect of stress due to the Ji-Ji, Taiwan, earthquake, which occurred at 1:47 a.m. on September 21, 1999, on the onset of acute myocardial infarction in six counties near the earthquake epicenter. The rate of hospitalization due to acute myocardial infarction increased during the 6 weeks after the earthquake, and a significantly higher number of patients were hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction during that period, compared with the same 6-week period in the previous year (99 and 65 patients, respectively). The findings suggest that extreme emotional stress due to the natural disaster, superimposed on the stress of awakening, increased the incidence of acute myocardial infarction in this population.

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