As per research living into old age with a partner may help ward off heart disease and stroke. A sweeping survey of research conducted over the last two decades covering more than two million people aged 42 to 77 found that being hitched significantly reduced the risk of both maladies.
The study examined ethnically varied populations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia, adding weight to the results. Compared to people living in spousal union, the divorced, widowed or never married were 42% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 16% more likely to have coronary heart disease, the study found.
The risk of dying was likewise elevated for the non-married, by 42% from coronary heart disease and by 55% from stroke. The results were nearly the same for men and women, except for stroke, to which men were more susceptible.
A team led by Chun Wai Wong, a researcher at Royal Stoke Hospital’s department of cardiology said, “These findings may suggest that marital status should be considered in the risk assessment for cardiovascular disease.”
More precisely, living together with or without a wedding band is probably the operative factor, if indeed conjugal status has any impact at all. But most of the 34 studies reviewed by Wong and colleagues did not identify couples out of wedlock or same-sex unions, so it was not possible to know whether, statistically, such arrangements were the equivalent of being wed.
Because the study was observational rather than based on a controlled experiment something scientists can do with mice but not humans no clear conclusions could be drawn as to cause-and-effect.
