Marriage reduces heart attack risk

Friday February 1st, 2013

Being married or in a co-habiting relationship reduces the risk of heart attack in both men and women – whatever their age, researchers reported yesterday.

While being unmarried increases the risk of heart attack their married or co-habiting counterparts – especially in middle age – are more likely to have “considerably better prognosis of acute cardiac events both before hospitalisation and after reaching the hospital alive”.

Lead author Dr Aino Lammintausta, from Turku University Hospital in Finland, said the study, which was published yesterday (31 January) in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, built on studies that linked being unmarried or living alone to heart disease and death among men.

Using data from the FINAMI myocardial infarction register data from 1993 to 2002, it examined people over the age of 35 living in four areas of Finland and all fatal and non-fatal heart events - known as “acute cardiac syndromes” (ACS).

The register recorded 15,330 ACS events over the ten-year period and 7,703 resulted in death within 28 days.

Although there was an equal number of men and women who suffered ACS events, analysis showed they were about 58-66% higher among unmarried men and 60-65% higher in unmarried women, than among married men and women in all age groups.

The differences in 28-day death rates were also marked: 60-168% higher in unmarried men and 71-175% higher in unmarried women, than among married men and women.

For example, rates among 65-74-year old married women were 247 per 100,000 people per year and 493 per 100,000 when the woman was unmarried.

Among those who died, the rate was 26% among married men aged between 35 and 64, 42% in men who had previously been married, and 51% in never-married men. Among women, the corresponding figures were 20%, 32%, and 43%.

The authors said there could be a number of reasons that linked marital status to the health problems: “We cannot exclude the possibility that persons with poor health status may be more prone to staying unmarried or getting divorced.”

They also suggest that married people may be better off, have better health habits, and enjoy higher levels of social support than single people. They might also get to hospital faster because of their partner’s intervention.

Dr Lammintausta and colleagues said it was also possible that married people received better treatment once in hospital and after discharge.

“We found that a larger proportion of married and cohabiting men received reperfusion therapy at acute stage, which may contribute to their better survival after hospitalisation,” they explain.

“Lower adherence to secondary preventive medications (aspirin, statins, beta-blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers) among the unmarried may have an adverse effect on long-term prognosis.”

However, lead author Dr Lammintausta called for further research into socio-demographic differences reflected in the study's results, which she described as a “considerable population health problem”.

Lammintausta A, Airaksinen KEJ et al. Prognosis of acute coronary events is worse in patients living alone: the FINAMI myocardial infarction register. Eur J Prevent Cardiol. Eur J Prevent Cardiol 2012; DOI: 10.1177/2047487313475893

Tags: Europe | General Health | Heart Health | Men's Health | Women's Health & Gynaecology

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Comments

1At 01/02/2013 10:34am Paul wrote

Being a veggie singleton yesterday's story seemed to bring good news "Vegetarians enjoy heart protection", then I read this story. You can't win!