Married Heart Patients Have Better Survival Rates

Marriage is an important element in the survival of patients who have had a heart attack, and marriage also improves the survival of patients with the most important risk factors, according to British researchers who studied the health records of 929, 552 patients of patients hospitalized in England between 2000 and 2013.

Patients were categorized as single, married, divorced, or widowed and followed until 2013 for mortality.

Of those who had a heart attack, married patients were 14 percent more likely than single patients to survive. Marriage was also protective in patients with the three biggest risk factors for heart disease — high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Married patients with high cholesterol were 16 percent more likely to be alive at the end of the study. Married diabetics were 14 percent more likely to survive, and those with high blood pressure had 10 percent higher survival when compared to those who were single.

Although it's not the first study to show that marriage is protective in patients who have had a heart attack, it's one of the largest studies of its kind, and it is the first to show that marriage is also protective in those who have preventable cardiovascular risk factors, which cause up to 80 percent of heart attacks.

"Marriage, and having a spouse at home, is likely to offer emotional and physical support on a number of levels ranging from encouraging patients to live healthier lifestyles, helping them to cope with the condition and helping them to comply with their medical treatments," said lead author Dr. Paul Carter.

"Our findings suggest that marriage is one way that patients can receive support to successfully control their risk factors for heart disease, and ultimately survive with them," Carter said.

A 2016 study from Japan's Yokahama City University found that single senior adults with Type 2 diabetes had double the risk of being overweight when compared to those who are married. In addition to a healthier weight, the study found that married men were 58 percent less likely to have metabolic syndrome, a combination of risks that include obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Another 2016 study found that marriage lowered the risk of becoming an alcoholic by 59 percent in men and 73 percent in women. Researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University and Sweden's Lund University discovered that those who benefit the most are people with a family history of alcohol abuse.