Women are more likely than men to have heart problems if they're in an unhappy marriage, according to a new study by Michigan State University.
Sociologist Hui Liu and co-researcher Linda Waite, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, analyzed data from more than 1,000 married women and men who participated in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, as reported by Michigan State University.
Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the study included participants ranging in age from 57 to 85 and covered five years of information. Results of the study - undertaken to discover the relationship between marriage quality and heart health - were published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
On her website, Liu suggests marriage counseling should also pay more attention to the older couples, not only couples in their 40s and 50s.
Results? Older couples in unsatisfactory marriages, especially women, are at increased risk for heart disease compared with the happily married counterparts.
Participants in the study submitted health information and information related to the state of their marriages. The researchers discovered that a bad marriage had a stronger negative impact on one's health than a good marriage's positive impact on health, according to CNN.
The study also suggests women may be at increased risk of heart ailments when in an unhappy marriage possibly because they internalize their feelings more than men.
