The election of Donald Trump could be harmful to people’s health, according to a review of recent research.

Public health experts from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital said some early studies had found an increase in hostility towards Muslims, immigrants and ethnic minorities following the Republican billionaire’s election.

But they said the same had also been experienced after Barack Obama’s election as president.

And such increased social tension had been linked to mental and physical health problems, including stress, increased risk of disease, babies being born to early and even premature death.

Professor David Williams, of the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health and Harvard University, said: “Elections can matter for the health of children and adults in profound ways that are often unrecognised and unaddressed.”

Mr Obama’s election had been followed by an “uptick in racial animosity among white Americans and a proliferation of hate websites and anti-Obama sentiment on social media”, according to a statement about the research issued by the Harvard Chan School.

“Donald Trump's election appeared to heighten already hostile attitudes toward racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and Muslims, according to some early research,” it added.

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The researchers pointed to a survey by the American Psychological Association in January which found that a large proportion of American adults were stressed by the current political environment. The problem affected more Democrats than Republicans and more minorities than “non-Hispanic whites”.

A study, published in August last year, of 1,836 US counties found a higher risk of death from heart disease among both black and white residents of areas where there were high levels of prejudice “with a stronger effect among blacks than whites”, the statement said.

And a study about birth problems among women of multiple racial and ethnic groups in California found that Arab American women had a higher risk of giving birth prematurely or to babies with a low birth weight in the six months after the 11 September terrorist attacks on the US.