Doctors: Watching Hockey Keeps Canadians Out of the Hospital

Watching big hockey games keeps Canadians out of the hospital, doctors at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre claimed Monday.

According to a study by Sunnybrook, which is home to Canada's largest trauma center, visits to emergency rooms in Ontario were down by 17 percent during the men's gold medal hockey game at last year's Vancouver Winter Olympics, The Vancouver Sun reported.

The game, in which Canada beat the US 3-2 in overtime, was the most watched TV broadcast in Canadian history.

The study compared the number of patients arriving at emergency rooms during the gold medal game with those arriving during the same six hours on six control days.

It found 647 patients visited emergency rooms each hour during the game, while 783 attended on a normal day.

"For all practical purposes, [ER visits] just disappeared," said Dr. Donald Redelmeier, an emergency physician at Sunnybrook.

Redelmeier said one reason for the drop in numbers may have been that many people were indoors and out of harm's way.

"The time you are watching television you are not outside playing football, breaking your arm, spraining your ankle or whatever," he said.

He also suggested people may have put off going to the emergency rooms for ailments like shortness of breath or stomach pains because of the game, and then gotten better by the time the contest was over.

"Many illnesses are self limiting by their nature," said Redelmeier. "After a few hours you just don't feel as bad as you did initially."

Redelmeier said he and his colleagues were now studying whether the current Stanley Cup Final featuring the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins was having the same impact.

Read more: Vancouver Sun