A heart attack dramatically increases the risk of having other dangerous long-term health disorders, according to a major new study.

Researchers at the University of Leeds have analysed more than 145 million records covering every adult patient admitted to hospital over a nine-year period to establish the risk of long-term health outcomes following a heart attack - in the largest study of its kind.

Whilst heart attacks are a serious and life-threatening condition, the British Heart Foundation estimates that nowadays more than seven in 10 people survive them, provided they receive quick and emergency treatment to get the blood flowing to the heart muscle again. Yet previous research has shown that heart attacks can have health implications for patients including further conditions which affect the heart and circulatory system, but also conditions affecting other parts of the body and mental health conditions.

The new research, part funded by The British Heart Foundation and Wellcome, shows that patients who had a heart attack went on to develop further conditions at a much higher rate than people of the same age and sex who had not had one.

Up to a third of patients went on to develop heart or kidney failure, 7 per cent had further heart attacks and 38 percent died from any cause within the nine-year study period.

Heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, severe bleeding, kidney failure, type 2 diabetes and depression all occurred more frequently for people who had a heart attack compared with those who did not; but the risk of cancer was lower overall, and the risk of dementia did not differ overall.

The study also identified that people from more socioeconomically deprived backgrounds were more likely to die or develop serious long-term health conditions following a heart attack. In particular, those from more deprived backgrounds were more likely to develop heart and kidney failure, compared to people from less deprived backgrounds of a similar age.

Lead author Dr Marlous Hall, associate professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology in Leeds' School of Medicine and Multimorbidity Research in the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA), said: "There are around 1.4 million heart attack survivors in the UK who are at high risk of developing further serious health conditions.