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HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
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Why Do Married People Have Lower Heart Disease Risk? While more than 90 percent of people marry by the age of 50 in the Western world, the divorce rate is very high. Belgium has the highest divorce rate in the world (70 percent), and the divorce rate in the United States stands at 53 percent. Divorced rate is believed to be even higher for subsequent marriages. Getting married can have many benefits. Healthy marriages are not only good for couples’ mental health but also good for children because growing up in a happy home protects them from mental, physical, educational and social problems. Married people are at a lower risk of getting a heart disease and stroke, too. A large study that was released on March 28, 2014 and presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 63rd Annual Scientific Session on March 29, 2014, found that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed people to suffer from any kind of heart or blood vessel problem. Most of the previous studies simply compared married to single people and lacked information on divorced and widowed people, or they just focused on heart attack. The new study compared married to divorced and widowed ones, and included a full range of disorders from clogged arteries and abdominal aneurysms to stroke risks and circulation problems in the legs. Researchers from New York University analyzed records from a database of more than 3.5 million people nationwide who were evaluated for cardiovascular diseases. The age of participants ranged from 21 to 102 years old, with the average age of 64, and 63 percent were female. Overall, 69.1 percent (2.4 million) were married, 13 percent (477,577) were widowed, 8.3 percent (292,670) were single and 9 percent (319,321) were divorced.
Based on the analyzed data, the researchers estimated the chances of disease by marital status. The 4 vascular diseases included in the study were peripheral artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm and coronary artery disease. After the adjustment for age, sex, race and other cardiovascular risk factors, it was found marital status was independently associated with cardiovascular disease, and the findings were consistent for both men and women across all 4 conditions. Married people had a 5 percent lower risk of any cardiovascular disease compared to single people while widowed people had a 3 percent greater risk and divorced people had a 5 percent greater risk, compared to married people. The relationship between marriage and lower risks of cardiovascular diseases was especially pronounced below the age of 50. For married people who were 50 or below, their risk of any cardiovascular disease was 12 percent lowered than those who were singles. The risk declined to 7 percent for people aged between 51 and 60 and to only 4 percent for those who were 61 and older. Smoking, a major risk factor for heart disease, was highest among divorced people and lowest in widowed ones. Obesity was commonly found in those who were single and divorced. Widowed people had the highest rates of high blood pressure, diabetes and inadequate exercise. Obviously, the new findings indicated that a person’s risk of heart disease could not simply be determined by physical measures, social factors and stress also play a part. Though there is no clear explanation from the researchers, it might be that if someone is married, they have a spouse who encourages them to take better care of themselves. They might be more willing to follow up with medical appointments and take recommended medications, eat healthy diet and exercise. Future research is necessary, according to researchers. A long-term follow-up study would help identify dynamic changes in disease patterns when people move from one status to another like moving from being married to divorced or widowed, or single to married, especially at later stages in life. By doing so, researchers can see whether and how soon cardiovascular disease appears after these changes occur.
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