Getting married ‘is good for your heart’: Male bachelors twice as likely to die from heart failure

A happy marriage really is the key to a longer and healthier life, according to a US study.

Lifelong bachelors are more than twice as likely to die from heart failure within five years of diagnosis than men who get married, researchers found.

This could be because they were less likely to have someone else monitoring their health. 

But scientists also discovered men who were widowed, divorced or separated did also not have an increased risk of death compared with married men.

The findings from the study of more than 6,800 American adults, add to the growing body of evidence highlighting the unexpected health benefits of tying the knot, including reduced risk of dementia and type two diabetes.  

The research is based on data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis – a medical research study – with the adults all aged between 45 and 84 years old.  

Scientists compared survival rates of the 94 study participants who had been diagnosed with heart failure, ten years into the study.

They looked at the time of heart failure diagnosis by gender and marital status over an average follow-up period of 4.7 years. 

Lifelong bachelors were around 2.2 times more likely to die than men who were married, researchers found.

For women, however, there was no link between marital status and their risk of death from heart failure. 

Unlike a heart attack, which happens when the blood supply to the heart is suddenly blocked, heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart can no longer pump effectively because the muscle has become weakened.

Symptoms include debilitating fatigue and breathlessness, and patients are often hospitalised due to its severity.

Around 200,000 Brits are diagnosed with the condition every year.

But there is currently no cure.

Just half of heart failure patients in the UK live more than five years after their diagnosis.

In the US, approximately 6.2 million adults suffer with the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The study’s authors from the University of Colorado said social interaction and isolation plays an important role in mood and overall health. 

They also suggested men may rely on women to take care of their health and remind them to take medication. 

Scientists said doctors should always take marital status into account when treating patients with heart failure. 

Dr Katarina Leyba, resident physician at the University of Colorado and the study’s lead author, said: ‘As clinicians, we need to think about our patients not just in terms of their medical risk factors, but also the context of their life. 

She added: ‘As our population is getting older and living longer, it’s imperative to determine how to best support the population through the aging process, and that might not be as easy as taking a pill. 

‘We need to take a personalized and holistic approach to supporting patients, especially with a chronic disease process like heart failure.’

The research will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session together with the World Congress of Cardiology on March 4.