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Why Living Alone Not a Good Option for Heart Attack Survivors?
 

Statistics show that the average age for a person to get the first heart attack is 68, and the risk rises quickly after this age. Of course, this does not mean that young people would not have heart attack. In fact, many youngsters have got their first heart attack in the 30s or 40s. But for heart attack survivors who are older, chances that they are living alone are higher, which might not be good for them. Why?

According to researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, living alone after a heart attack could be linked to a higher risk of death over the next 4 years, and a lack of support at home was also associated with a lower quality of life just 1 year after the heart attack.

Their paper, published in the ‘American Journal of Cardiology’, found that 4 years after a heart attack, the mortality risk was about 35 percent higher for people living alone, though the risk of death was about the same among people who lived by themselves just 1 year after heart attack. This indicated that social support should be an important consideration after a heart attack.

Data from PREMIER, a registry of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction (commonly known as heart attack or in short AMI) at 19 United States centers between 2003 and 2004, was used to assess the association of living alone with outcomes after AMI, including mortality, hospitalization, and health status.

471 (20.8 percent) of the 2,264 patients with living arrangement data in the sample reported living alone, and a larger percentage of these patients were women and unemployed compared to patients who lived with others. These patients were also tended to be older and were twice as likely to smoke.

There are fundamental differences between those who live alone and those who do not. For example, about 33 percent of the study subjects who lived with others were at a healthy weight for their height, comparing with those who lived alone.

The results of the study suggested that patients living alone might be at greater risk of adverse outcomes. Though it did not prove that living alone could cause earlier death, it did account for differences, like gender, race, marital status and pet ownership, between people living alone and those living with others. Identification of such differences is important, according to some health experts not involved in the study, as these alone could simply affect well being and risk of death.

Some studies have found a link between a strong social network and health. In one study, researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported in the journal ‘PLos Medicine’ on July 27, 2010 that a healthy social life might help to achieve long-term health. They analyzed data from 148 studies on health outcomes and social relationships, involving more than 300,000 men and women across the developed world and found that poor social connection had on average 50 percent higher risks of death in the study’s follow-up period (an average of 7.5 years) than people with more active social connections.

To improve recovery, it is paramount to ensure that patients who live alone receive adequate social support from family, friends and neighbors.

In reality, people who live alone might not only lack social support, but also not received the help they require to exercise, take their medications or coordinate the logistics of attending doctor’s appointment. Hence, caregivers should provide extra support or follow-up care for people who recently had a heart attack.

On the other hand, heart attack patients who might lack social support have to be proactive in connecting with people in their community and workplace. Most importantly, these people should never think that they are doomed if they are living alone.

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