Your doctor may not ask if you are happily married, but the answer could well predict how well you do after bypass surgery. Researchers at the University of Rochester followed 225 patients who had coronary bypass surgery between 1987 and 1990. The participants were asked about important lifestyle factors such as smoking, exercise and education. They were also asked whether they were married, and if so, whether the marriage was a happy one.
Fifteen years later, happily married people were more than three times more likely than unmarried people to have survived. The effect was especially striking for women. More than four-fifths of happily wedded wives had survived for the length of the study, compared to 28 percent of those in unhappy marriages and 27 percent of the unwed. The survival rate for happily married husbands was 83 percent, about the same as for happy married women. Only 60 percent of the unhappily married men had survived. Only 36 percent of the bachelors lived throughout the entire study. The investigators hypothesize that support from a spouse encourages people to follow healthier lifestyles, and also that lower hostility is associated with reduced inflammation.
[Health Psychology, online August 22, 2011]
The People's Perspective on Medicine