Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- People who are under short-term but intense pressure to meet deadlines run a six times higher risk of having a heart attack within the next 24 hours, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Men were 80 percent more likely to have a heart attack if they had experienced a conflict at work within the preceding 12 months, and the risk increased further if they felt strongly affected, according to the study. The researchers analyzed first heart attacks in more than 3,500 people, most of whom took part in the Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Programme or SHEEP.

Intense short-term pressure seems to have a greater impact on the heart than accumulated stress over a year, the researchers found. Even praised from the boss is associated with increased risk, perhaps because the accolades may come after someone has just been under pressure to meet a deadline, they said.

``Work related life events characterized by high demands, competition, or conflict have the potential to trigger the onset of myocardial infarction,'' said lead researcher Jette Moeller from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in the study.

Moeller and her colleagues analyzed healthy people who were aged between 45 and 70 at the start of the study in the early 1990s. They used surveys and interviews to explore events and working life the 12 months preceding their heart attacks. About 8 percent of the interviewees had experienced a life event associated with work the day before their heart attack.

For women, a change in financial circumstances tripled their risk of having a heart attack. Women were also three times as likely, and men six times as likely to have a heart attack if they had taken on increased responsibilities at work, particularly when these were viewed negatively.

Coronary heart disease, which causes heart attack and angina, was the single leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2001, according to the American Heart Association.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chantal Britt in Stockholm at cbritt@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 13, 2004 19:01 EST