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COVID-19 illness, even mild cases, can leave people with a significantly higher risk of life-threatening heart problems, a new study found.

In one of the largest analyses yet of the long-term effects of COVID-19, researchers found that the virus drastically increases the chance of heart issues like failures, strokes and irregularities, and the potential of deadly blood clots in the legs and lungs for at least a year after infection.

The risk of heart failure went up by 72%, heart attacks by 63% and stroke by 52%, even for people who had mild cases.

The researchers, led by Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, collected data for up to a year from 153,760 COVID-19 patients before vaccines were available. They compared the patients’ cardiovascular health and any heart problems to two control groups — one from the same time period of more than 5.6 million people who did not contract COVID-19, and the other of 5.8 million veterans from before the pandemic.

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The patients had received medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs, making them mostly white men, but even after accounting for age and race, the high risks still held.

“It was a bit of a moment for us when we realized it was evident in all of these subgroups, including younger adults, older adults, Black people, white people, people with obesity and those without,” Al-Aly told NBC News. “The risk was everywhere.”

Heart experts told the outlet that the COVID-19 vaccines, which protect against infection, likely reduce this risk.

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The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine last week, is also in line with previous studies about how COVID-19 affects the heart.

In a Twitter thread, Al-Aly said that their research is a warning that countries will start to see a rise in cardiovascular problems in their populations.

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“Governments and health systems around the world should be prepared to deal with the likely significant contribution of the COVID-19 pandemic to a rise in the burden of cardiovascular diseases,” he said. “Because of the chronic nature of these conditions, they will likely have long-lasting consequences for patients and health systems and also have broad implications on economic productivity and life expectancy.”

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“Addressing the challenges posed by Long COVID will require a much needed, but so far lacking, urgent and coordinated long-term global response strategy.”