You can live longer after heart surgery and recover more quickly from illness
OTTAWA (CCN)
Cardus Family has released a new study revealing marriage is related to a host of better health outcomes in everything from cancer and heart disease to improved mental health.
The 52-page study Marriage is Good For Your Health by Susan Martinuk examines more than 50 published studies to show the correlation between marital status and health.
The studies show married people are more likely to recover from cancer, survive a heart attack, live longer after heart surgery, recover more quickly from illness, and have healthier eating habits and lifestyles.
While Martinuk does not claim there is a cause and effect relationship between marriage and better health, the studies show a strong enough relationship between marriage and better health outcomes to add to what researchers have called the ‘marriage advantage.’
“If marriage was a pill, we would be clamouring for it,” Martinuk concludes. “Sadly, it is not that simple. Despite its far-reaching implications for marriages, families, and our society, few Canadians know about the marriage advantage.”
“Governments, community leaders, families, and health-care providers all need to fully understand the relationship between marital status and illness in an effort to develop appropriate strategies that will improve health care and health outcomes for both married and unmarried people,” she writes.
The only caveat is that unhappy marriages are correlated with lower health outcomes in areas such as blood pressure, increased risk of heart attack and higher levels of depression, the report says.
While revealing the statistical evidence showing the better health comes, the report also urges a “change in the conversation” regarding marriage to make necessary policy changes to improve health outcomes for all Canadians and reduce the need for expensive health resources.
“Understanding the mechanisms by which marriage promotes better health can also be beneficial in assisting health-care personnel identify the advantageous components of marriage that appear to be missing in the health-care regimes of those who are widowed, separated, divorced, or have never married,” the report says. “Implementing medical protocols that address and provide alternatives to these missing elements could result in markedly improved health outcomes for this subset (54 percent) of Canada’s population.”
“Without such changes, the evidence reported herein suggests that those in the various unmarried groups will remain at a higher risk for morbidity and mortality, and they will continue to be at a distinct disadvantage in terms of the health care they receive,” it says.
The Cardus Family study urges using the research to improve the health outcomes of all Canadians regardless of marital status, including developing” medical protocols that ensure physicians understand their patient’s social needs and can suggest steps to mitigate the physical harm posed by social isolation, divorce, separation, or suffering the loss of a spouse.”
The study is available for free via the Cardus.ca/family website.
