Heart surgery recovery better when married than single, divorced, widowed: study

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A new study found that marriage could really do more good to your heart than you might, actually, think-- not just romantically speaking, but health-wise.

Turns out, those couples who were able to keep their vows and have stayed married to each other are more likely to have successful recoveries after undergoing heart surgery as compared to those who were not able to keep the fire alive and went on their separate ways, those who have remained single, or have been widowed.

The research study took into account the health condition and survival data of 1,576 cardiac surgery patients from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study. The patients were all adults who are already in their 50s and above as well as those who have undergone heart surgery. Among this group, 65 percent were still married, 21 percent were widowed, 12 percent were either divorced or separated, and 2 percent never got the chance to marry someone, wrote Live Science.

The findings of the study, which was published in JAMA Surgery, suggests that those who were divorced, separated or widowed were 40 percent more likely to die or develop a new disability that could affect the quality of their daily lives within the first two years after surgery, compared to those married people.

Dr. Rachel Werner, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said that the purpose of their study was to gather and study more data when it comes to the health outcomes in older patients after undergoing surgery CBS News reported.

"People who are not married have higher mortality, or risk of death, after surgery. The specific things we measured are things we called activities of daily living -- being able to dress oneself, walk, feed oneself," she said.

"When we think about people going to have surgery, we usually look for risk factors, things that make us suspect they'll have a longer recovery or not a full recovery. It's important to identify risk factors because we can provide extra support for after surgery."

The study revealed that 34 percent of widowed patients, 29 percent of those who were divorced or separated and 20 percent of those who remained unmarried have either died or have developed some form of disability. Some of these newly acquired impairment after the surgery could be difficulty in doing daily tasks on their own like eating and walking. On the other hand, only 19 percent of the married participants suffered, according to the Daily Mail.

Further studies were suggested in order to better understand the role played by the spouse in these cases, and bridge the gap in terms of recovery success between those married and not.