Marital stress triples women's heartbreak

CHICAGO - Common sense tells us that a bad marriage can lead to heartbreak.

But Swedish researchers say it is worse for women with heart disease who are in a stressful relationship - it can triple their risk of recurrent heart trouble.

While a stressful job has been found to worsen the heart problems of men, doctors at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute have found that the determining factor for women with heart trouble is the stress of their relationship, rather than work pressure.

"Among women who were married or cohabiting with a male partner, marital stress was associated with a 2.9-fold increased risk of recurrent events after adjustment for age, oestrogen status, education level, smoking" and other factors, said study author Kristina Orth-Gomer.

In a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, she said: "In contrast to the findings for marital stress, there was no statistical evidence of work stress effect on recurrent coronary events for either cohabiting women or those living alone."

Of the 292 women, aged 30 to 65, taking part in the study, 187 had heart disease.

A total of 52 women died of heart disease, had a heart attack, underwent some type of procedure to relieve vascular trouble, or had some combination of these during the five-year follow-up period.

The researchers said that women under 70 had a worse prognosis than men after suffering a heart attack, though the reason for the disparity was poorly understood.

The study suggested that women living without partners fared better than those in bad relationships.

- REUTERS