A happy marriage is good for the heart, study reveals

A happy marriage helps heart attack patients recover faster, a study has found.

Spouses with loving and supportive partners are at lower risk of being readmitted to the hospital or experiencing chest pain.

Conversely, a stressful relationship is associated with a slower recovery, say researchers from Yale University.

Women have been found to be particularly affected by this problem, as they are more likely than men to report severe marital stress.

Experts said the findings could pave the way for heart disease to move away from being a single-organ disease and begin to understand it holistically — including in relation to patients’ mental health and personal circumstances.

They suggested that looking at the day-to-day stresses of heart disease patients could improve treatment and care, including financial strain and stress at work and marital problems.

According to the British Heart Foundation, cardiovascular disease accounts for a quarter of all deaths in the UK each year, killing 160,000 people and causing 100,000 hospital admissions due to heart attacks.

Previous studies have shown that psychological and social stress can lead to poorer recovery from heart disease, but until now the impact of romantic stress was unknown.

The study results improve the current understanding that marriage or partnership is associated with better health and heart disease prognosis.

After discovering that stress has a negative impact on heart disease recovery, the study’s lead author, Dr. Cenjing Zhu, of the Yale School of Public Health, said more resources are needed to reduce people’s stress levels.

She said, “Healthcare professionals need to be aware of personal factors that may contribute to cardiac recovery and focus on directing patients to resources that help manage and reduce stress levels.”

Zhu compared recovery one year after a heart attack in those who reported marital stress in a study of 1,593 people.

Her team ranked everyone on physical health, mental health and stress levels using a self-rated 12-point scale.

Those who reported severe marital stress were 67 percent more likely to report chest pain than people with mild or no marital stress.

Also 50 percent had to be readmitted to the hospital.

On a 12-point scale, those suffering from severe marital stress scored an average of 1.6 points lower in physical health, 2.6 points lower in mental health and five points lower in overall quality of life.

This association was likely to be particularly significant since, of all participants, four out of 10 women reported severe marital stress compared to three out of 10 men.

Dr Zhu said: “Our findings confirm that stress experienced in everyday life, such as marital stress, can affect the recovery of young adults after a heart attack.

“However, additional stressors beyond marital stress, such as financial strain or work stress, may also play a role in young adults’ recovery, and the interaction between these factors warrants further research.

“Future efforts should consider screening patients for daily stress during follow-up visits to better identify people at high risk for low physical/mental recovery or additional hospitalization.

“A multidimensional model of care based on clinical factors and psychosocial aspects may be useful, especially for younger adults after a heart attack.”

All patients in the American Heart Association study were treated for a heart attack and included 103 US hospitals in 30 states.

Each member of the group was married or in a committed relationship when they had their heart attack.

They had an average age of 47 and consisted of 1,199 (75.3 percent) white adults, 205 (12.9 percent) black adults, and 109 (6.8 percent) Hispanic adults.

More than two thirds were women.

To assess the level of marital stress one month after the heart attack, participants completed a 17-item questionnaire that included the quality of the emotional and sexual relationship with their spouse or partner.

According to their answers, they were classified into three groups: no or mild marital stress, moderate marital stress, or severe marital stress.

dr. Zhu and her team followed the participants for up to a year and used a scale to measure how the participants’ physical health might limit their daily activities, such as physical pain or perceived health.

Stress levels and physical and mental health were also self-reported.

Professor Nieca Goldberg, an expert volunteer at the American Heart Association, said: “This study highlights the importance of assessing the mental health of heart patients and is consistent with previous studies showing a greater burden of marital stress on women’s health.

“A holistic approach to cardiac patient care that includes physical and mental health can transform cardiac patient care from single organ care to the patient’s global health.

“The health care system should support the clinical assessment of physical and mental health, as this can lead to better outcomes and healthier lives for our patients.”

The research is expected to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions later this week.