If your home team is playing in the Super Bowl (looking at you, Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers fans), the parties you attend could give you more than just heartburn, a hangover or temporary psychological discomfort.

They could give you the flu.

According to a new study published in the American Journal of Health Economics, the death rate from the flu is appreciably higher among those whose home team makes it to the Super Bowl.

This seemingly puzzling finding actually makes some sense. The game occurs during the heart of flu season and is the reason many mingle at Super Bowl parties. And fans with their team in the game are probably more likely to attend one.

The flu virus can spread whenever a person with it releases droplets of saliva — by coughing, sneezing or even talking — within 6 feet of someone without it. At a Super Bowl party, people are mingling closely.

The Super Bowl is far from the only event that increases flu transmission. Anything that puts more people in close contact during flu season does so. One study found the reduction in air travel after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks postponed that yea! r’s flu peak by almost two weeks. The holiday closure of schools in France reduces flu cases by about 17 percent, according to another study.

Flu rates were higher at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, large music festivals in Hungary and Belgium, and the Hajj pilgrimage. It’s likely that other large gatherings during the flu season lead to greater transmission and mortality as we! ll; they just haven’t been studied.