Marital Strain Increases Risk of Death, Heart Disease
Reported February 18, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Certain types of marital strain can increase women’s risk of death and men’s risk of heart disease, say researchers reporting at the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke in Orlando, Fla.
These findings come from the ongoing Framingham Offspring Study, which tracks the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease and other demographic characteristics in the Framingham, Mass., community.
Researchers studied 1,769 men and 1,913 women between ages 18 and 77, with 1,493 men and 1,501 women married or in a marital situation. They were tracked for 10 years to determine if they developed heart disease or died.
Even though married men were heavier, older and had higher blood pressure, they were about half as likely to die compared to unmarried men. Researchers say this is consistent with previous research.
To analyze marital strain, researchers looked at traditional measures like satisfaction and disagreement and then some more contemporary ones like conflict resolution and interpersonal communication issues. The traditional issues of satisfaction and disagreement did not have any health effects for men or women.
However, men who reported their wives’ work was disruptive because they came home from work upset were more than two-times more likely to develop heart disease. Women who reported keeping their feelings to themselves when in conflict with their husbands, known as self-silencing, had more than four-times the risk of dying from any cause compared to women who always show their feelings.
“We believe we have found characteristics of marriages that have an impact on peoples’ health and longevity … We also believe there are some medical implications for clinical practice. While medical care providers are not specifically trained to intervene on psychosocial issues such as marital characteristics, they may be the most likely contact to observe or uncover these characteristics or emotions,” says principal investigator Elaine D. Eaker. She suggests adding screening questions to medical history questionnaires to uncover stressors so a referral to counselors can be made if needed.
SOURCE: The Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 16-19, 2005