Why getting married cuts heart risk by 40%

MARRIED people are more than 40 per cent less likely to suffer or die from heart disease than those who are not, according to a study.

It showed they are also half as likely to die from stroke.

Doctors believe having a ‘significant other’ makes people more likely to get symptoms treated earlier and take medications.

Researchers from Keele University say the findings are so significant that a patient’s marital status should be regarded as a risk factor, like blood pressure or smoking.

Mamas Mamas, professor of cardiology at Keele University and a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Stoke Hospital, said: ‘In medicine, we ask about marital status as a matter of course, but we don’t really think about it as a risk factor.

‘What this study shows is that medics should think about what additional risk this gives the patient both in developing their first heart attack or stroke, or having better long-term outcomes.’

Researchers looked at data from studies of two million patients around the world, aged from 42 to 77, between 1963 and 2015.

Known risk factors such as age, gender, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and smoking are accountable for around four-fifths of heart and circulatory diseases but it is unclear what influences the remaining 20 per cent.

Compared with people who were married, those who were never married, or who were divorced or widowed were 42 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, the researchers found.

Analysis showed divorce was associated with a 35 per cent higher risk of developing heart disease for both men and women.

Both widows and widowers were 16 per cent more likely to have a stroke, according to the research published in the journal Heart. Those who have a heart attack are 42 per cent more likely to die from it than those who had never married.

Cardiovascular disease causes more than a quarter of all deaths in the UK – 150,000 a year. Scientists have called marriage the ‘most fundamental’ form of social support because research has found it also cuts the chances of dementia by a third.

Professor Mamas said: ‘Being married makes people more likely to seek medical help. Often, particularly men say, “I noticed symptoms in my chest but I wasn’t going to come – my wife made me”.’

He added: ‘We know that patients are more likely to take and adhere to medications if they’re married. I think that’s related to spousal support reminding them of the need to take them.’

While same-sex couples or long-term cohabitees were not officially part of the study, there was no reason to think the findings would not apply to them, he said.

The authors warned that the methods used in the studies they considered varied considerably, potentially affecting the results of their analysis.