Short-term effect of stock volatility and cardiovascular mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke are leading causes of death. It has several risk factors, including stress and pressure. Stock volatility can cause acute stress for stockholders so that it can cause CVD events. Recently, the spread of new coronaviruses worldwide has affected economic development greatly, leading to more severe stock market fluctuations, so we systematically quantify the short-term effect of stock volatility and CVD events. Methods: Time-series analysis on the effect of stock volatility and cardiovascular events were concluded. We conducted a systematic literature search for studies published in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Data up to the date February 9, 2020. We assessed publication bias using Egger's test. Overall analysis and sensitivity analysis were conducted separately. Results: Four studies were finally included. Every 100-point increase in the stock market will bring about 1.01% increases in cardiovascular mortality [95% confidence intervals (CI), -0.18% to 2.21%]. The meta-analysis showed no statistical significance for cardiovascular mortality. Every 100-point increase in the stock market brought 1.01% increases in the cardiovascular mortality [95% CI, -0.18% to 2.21%]. In terms of stroke events, the estimated effect was 2.999% (95% CI, 0.325% to 5.673%). Different lag patterns also have effects on cardiovascular mortality. Every 100-point increase brought about 4.026% (95% CI, 1.516% to 6.536%) and 4.424% (95% CI, 1.145% to 7.703%) for lag 01 and 04 separately. Conclusions: Though our study has a number of limitations due to the limited studies included, it suggested that stock volatility had a lagging effect on CVD mortality, which may last for several days. Also, it might increase the incidence of stroke.