According to new study conducted in Britain married people have higher chance to survive a heart attack and leave the hospital earlier than single people.
"Our results should not be a cause for concern for single people who have had a heart attack," said study co-author Dr. Nicholas Gollop, a clinical research fellow in cardiology at the University of East Anglia. "But they should certainly be a reminder to the medical community of the importance of considering the support a heart attack survivor will get once they're discharged," Gollop added.
The researcher notes that marriage itself is not what shows the apparent health benefits, but the mental and physical support that married people have can bring these kind of results.
Researchers investigated over 25,000 patients with a heart attack diagnosis that happened between January 2000 and March 2013. More than 60 percent were men and the average age of 67.
Singles didn't suffer the worst rather it was the divorced patients who were 6 percent more likely to pass away during the seven to eight years of follow-up, compared to never married people.
"We hypothesize that psychosocial factors associated with divorce, such as depression, anxiety and stress, increase the risk of dying after a heart attack," said study co-author Dr. Rahul Potluri, founder of the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality (ACALM) Study Unit, which performed the research.
Also marriage saves lives right after a heart attack.
"Most deaths occur before people even reach a hospital or emergency medical services," said Dr. Joon Lee, a cardiologist and director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "People often don't recognize the symptoms and worry that they will turn out to have indigestion and be embarrassed. This is where a spouse can motivate the patient to present earlier rather than waiting several hours — that can be the difference between life and death."
The research didn't conclude whether there is a difference between men and women when it comes to the benefits of marriage on heart attack survival.
Details of these resutls were presented at the British Cardiovascular Society's Annual Conference in Manchester.
