Risk of cardiovascular diseases by marital status
Keywords:
marital status, cardio-vascular diseases, social support, risk factorsAbstract
Increasing societal diversity has led to a decreasing proportion of marriages and increasing rates of divorce and cohabitation. Never married and divorced have a higher risk for cardio-vascular diseases and a lower survival rate after the disease incidence as compared to married. Cohabitation is also associated with a higher risk of cardio-vascular diseases, which probably reflects higher heterogeneity of divorced. Differences in disease risk according to marital status have increased over the last decades. However, this increase has been more rapid in women as compared to men, and nowadays, marital status group differences are similar in men and women. Lower socio-economic status of cohabiting and divorced as compared to married explains partly these differences, but they are also seen after adjusting the results for socio-economic factors directly or by comparing siblings. Health behavior and mental health probably lie behind these differences and they can be caused by selection and a protecting effect of spouse. Further, the death of spouse increases the risk of cardio-vascular diseases in men in particular. Long-term intimate relationship protects from diseases and offers support after the disease incidence. Single persons should be better recognized as a risk group in health care and social policy.
