Getting married ‘is good for your heart’: Male bachelors are twice as likely to die from heart failure, study claims
- Lifelong bachelors twice as likely to die from heart failure than married men
- But widowed, divorced or separated men did not have an increased risk of death
A happy marriage really is the key to a longer and healthier life, according to a US study.
Lifelong bachelors are more than twice as likely to die from heart failure within five years of diagnosis than married men, researchers found.
This could be because they were less likely to have someone else monitoring their health.
Yet the same protective effect also appeared to apply to men who were widowed, divorced or separated.
The findings, based on an analysis of more than 6,800 American adults, add to the growing body of evidence highlighting the unexpected health benefits of tying the knot, including reduced risk of dementia and Type 2 diabetes.
Lifelong bachelors are more than twice as likely to die from heart failure within five years of diagnosis than men who get married, researchers found. This could be because they were less likely to have someone else monitoring their health
University of Colorado academics took data from an existing study involving adults aged 45 and above.
Records of 94 volunteers who had been medically diagnosed with heart failure were then compared.
This allowed the experts to see how long patients from different groups survived for, on average. Participants tracked them for around five years each.
Lifelong bachelors were around 2.2 times more likely to die within five years of being diagnosed than men who were married, results showed.
For women, however, there was no link between marital status and their risk of death from heart failure.
Unlike a heart attack, which happens when the blood supply to the heart is suddenly blocked, heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart can no longer pump effectively because the muscle has become weakened.
Symptoms include debilitating fatigue and breathlessness, and patients are often hospitalised due to its severity.
Around 200,000 Brits are diagnosed with the condition every year.
But there is currently no universal cure.
Just half of heart failure patients in the UK live more than five years after their diagnosis.
In the US, approximately 6.2million adults suffer with the condition, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study’s authors said social interaction and isolation plays an important role in mood and overall health.
They also suggested men may rely on women to take care of their health and remind them to take medication.
Scientists said doctors should always take marital status into account when treating patients with heart failure.
Dr Katarina Leyba, resident physician at the University of Colorado and the study’s lead author, said: ‘As clinicians, we need to think about our patients not just in terms of their medical risk factors, but also the context of their life.
She added: ‘As our population is getting older and living longer, it’s imperative to determine how to best support the population through the aging process, and that might not be as easy as taking a pill.
‘We need to take a personalised and holistic approach to supporting patients, especially with a chronic disease process like heart failure.’
The research will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session together with the World Congress of Cardiology on March 4.
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