Marriage reduces the risk of heart attack in both men and women and at all ages

A large population-based study from Finland has shown that being unmarried increases the risk of fatal and non-fatal heart attack in both men and women whatever their age. Conversely, say the study investigators, especially among middle-aged couples, being married and cohabiting are associated with "considerably better prognosis of acute cardiac events both before hospitalization and after reaching the hospital alive". The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, was based on the FINAMI myocardial infarction register data from the years 1993 to 2002. The study included information on people over the age of 35 living in four geographical regions of Finland. All fatal and non-fatal cardiac events - known as "acute cardiac syndromes", ACS - were included and cross-referred to the population database. "Our aim," said the authors, "was to study the differences in the morbidity and prognosis of incident acute coronary syndromes according to socio-demographic characteristics (marital status and household size)." The register recorded 15,330 ACS events over the study period of ten years, with just over half (7703) resulting in death within 28 days. Events occurred almost equally among men and women. However, the analysis also showed that the age-standardised incidences of these ACS events were approximately 58-66% higher among unmarried men and 60-65% higher in unmarried women, than among married men and women in all age groups