LOS ANGELES, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A loss for the home team in the Super Bowl has been linked to a higher death rate -- especially among the elderly, U.S. researchers suggest.

Dr. Robert A. Kloner of the Heart Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital and Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and colleagues ran regression models for mortality rates for cardiac causes for the 1980 Los Angeles Super Bowl loss and for the 1984 Los Angeles Super Bowl win.

A study, published in the journal Clinical Cardiology, shows the Los Angeles Super Bowl loss of 1980 was linked to a 15 percent increase in all circulatory deaths associated with the Super Bowl loss -- in women there was a 27 percent increase in all circulatory deaths linked to the loss, while in older patients, there was a 22 percent increase in circulatory deaths associated with the Super Bowl loss.

There were an extra 2.6 deaths per 100,000 people age 65 and older each day during two weeks following the loss, but for those age 65 and under, the increased death rate was 0.11 per 100,000 people each day following the loss. However, the Super Bowl win appeared to reduce deaths more frequently in older people and in women, the study says.

"Physicians and patients should be aware that stressful games might elicit an emotional response that could trigger a cardiac event," Kloner, the study leader, says in a statement. "Stress reduction programs or certain medications might be appropriate in individual cases."