(Thomson Reuters) – Married people may be less likely to develop cardiovascular disease or die from a heart attack or stroke than individuals who aren’t, a research review suggests.
Researchers examined data from 34 previous studies involving more than two million people. Overall, they found that adults who were divorced, widowed or never married were 1.42 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 1.16 times more likely to develop coronary artery disease.
Unmarried people were also 1.43 times more likely to die from heart disease and 1.55 times more likely to die from strokes, researchers report in the journal Heart.
While the study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how marriage might help improve heart health, there are many reasons marriage might have a protective effect including potentially more financial stability and social support, said senior study author Dr. Mamas Mamas of the University of Keele in the U.K. (…)