Divorce trauma may increase heart attack risk

Divorced people are 16 per cent more likely to die if they have a heart attack than those who stay married, scientists have found.

People with high blood pressure are also 9 per cent more likely to die if they get divorced, according to one of the largest studies to look at the effect of relationships on health.

Marriage has long been known to have a protective effect, particularly on men, and scientists believe that spouses encourage each other to stay healthy, take medicine and see a doctor when they are ill.

Now scientists say that the trauma of splitting up could damage the heart directly, as well as making people stop taking care of themselves.

Earlier this year a British study of a million people found that those with high cholesterol were 16 per cent less likely to die early if they were married. Married people with high blood pressure were 10 per cent less likely to die early than single people.

The same researchers have now used extra data to find that divorced people who suffer a heart attack or angina are 7 per cent more likely than other single people to die as a result.

The gap widens when divorced people are compared with those who stayed married, with a 16 per cent higher risk of dying if they have a heart attack, according to data presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona.

Rahul Potluri, of Aston Medical School in Birmingham, senior author of the research, said: "Single people do worse than married people and divorcees do worst of all. One of the questions we are asking is why do divorced patients do so much worse? And that’s where psycho-social factors come in: the acute stress of divorce in particular.

"What happens with divorce is that someone who may have been compliant with their medication while they were married is suddenly under a lot of stress as well as being on their own. They may find it difficult to look after themselves, they lose control of what’s going on. It’s a double hit."

Medication is crucial to reduce risk after a heart attack and Dr Potluri said that not only did spouses make sure that their partner was sticking to doctors’ orders, but people often stopped taking tablets during the throes of a break-up.

"During that phase they may find it difficult to look after themselves," he said. "Going through a divorce is not a one day thing. With heart medication, even if you stop it for a couple of days the impact can be really bad."