It is not the first time that science has found a link between human relationships and health. Two extensive meta-analyzes already determined at the time that social isolation can increase the risk of premature death by up to 50%. The social dimension of the human species is very decisive in its survival. And not only the network of friendship relationships, but, specifically, that of the couple.
Now, a study published in the journal Heart claims to have found the cause of no less than 20% of cardiovascular diseases – 80% are associated with factors such as age, cholesterol or smoking – and this is precisely marriage.
People who are married (or who have been married) have a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and they also survive longer . This is the conclusion of the extensive analysis, which collected the 34 most relevant works, with a total of 2 million participants between 42 and 77 years old, from Europe, Scandinavia, North America, the Middle East and Asia.
Specifically, married, widowed or divorced people have a 42% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, and a 16% lower risk of developing coronary artery heart disease, compared to single people.
And risk reduction does not only lie in maintaining the couple’s relationship; the simple fact of having been married, even if the marriage breaks down later, is already a protective factor.
In divorced people, the risk of heart disease is 35% lower, in both men and women. In the case of people who had been widowed, the observed risk reduction was 16%.
However, the analysis leaves some fringes loose. Data on same-sex couples are not yet available, and factors such as the quality of marriage, or coexistence between long-term couples who are not married, have not been taken into account. However, the researchers say that this conclusion can also be applied to couples who live together: they enjoy the same benefits as those who are married.
So clear is the position of the researchers that having a stable relationship is a guarantee of health that they have suggested including marital status as one more risk factor in the development of coronary heart disease, and in its survival.
More care due to the ‘insistence’ of the couple
There are several hypotheses that being married has so much weight in the disposition to develop coronary heart disease. First, patients are more likely to comply with medication and rehabilitation after having suffered a cardiovascular accident.
In addition, they tend to be less ignorant of the symptoms that precede these types of attacks when they are single than when they are in a relationship. “Men tend to ignore these types of symptoms. Normally, they only seek medical attention at the insistence of their spouses ”, according to Professor Mamas A. Mamas of Keele University (UK), one of the lead authors of the study.
It is the first time that marital status has been classified as a risk factor in health status, and not just as another part of the patient’s social context.
Reference: Wai Wong, Chun; Shing Kwok, Chun; Narain, Aditya; Gulati, Martha; Mihalidou, Anastasia S .; Wu, Pensee; Alasnag, Mirvat; Mamas, Mamas. ‘Marital status and risk of cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis’. Heart, June 19, 2018.
