New research shows that severe COVID-19 could be a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke — on par with diabetes or heart disease. The risk may last for three years after infection, according to researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

The USC team hopes their study findings, published today, spark conversation about preventive care for people who survive serious COVID infections. Maybe, the researchers say, COVID should be considered a heart disease risk equivalent, like diabetes. “If we’re treating diabetics with the cocktail of drugs that we’re giving to heart disease patients, should we be giving the severe COVID patients the same cocktail of drugs to prevent their first heart attack and stroke?” said lead study author Hooman Allayee, PhD, a professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.

“Our data doesn’t mean that cardiologists should start doing that right away,” Allayee said. “We want people to start thinking about [severe COVID-19] this way and start talking about it.” The new study builds on a robust body of research linking viruses to heart problems. Having the flu can increase your risk of heart attack by six times during the first week after diagnosis. Earlier studies suggest that COVID increases the risk of heart problems and stroke for up to a year after infection, with or without vaccination. A 2024 study showed that the risk of death and many health effects, including cardiovascular complications, may decline but not disappear for up to three years following COVID hospitalization.

Though COVID-19 mainly affects the lungs, the virus can make it harder for your heart to function. “This is an association that’s been in science for a long time,” said Patricia Nguyen, MD, an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University, who was not involved in the study.

Allayee and his team wanted to explore long-term cardiovascular risks of COVID infection. But they also wondered how the heart risks posed by severe COVID compare to having heart disease or type 2 diabetes. To find out, they analyzed data from the UK Biobank, a resource that has health, genetic, and lifestyle data on a half million U.K. residents. They compared the risk of heart complications among 10,000 adults infected with COVID in 2020, before vaccines hit the market, and 200,000 adults not infected during that time.

The researchers found that infection may double the risk of heart attack, stroke, or dying from any cause for up to three years – even in people without heart disease. People who were hospitalized with COVID faced a nearly four times greater risk of cardiovascular complications and death than those who had not been infected.