ST Feb 19, 2005

Want longer life for wife?
Let her argue with you

LONDON - A WOMAN who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is four times more likely to die from heart disease and other causes, according to a study published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal.

Researchers believe women who argue with their husbands are warding off heart disease and other causes of death.

And women whose work had a disruptive effect on their home lives were twice as likely to develop heart disease.

The researchers studied 3,700 people in Framingham, Massachusetts, over a 10-year period, the BBC reported.

The joint Boston University and Wisconsin-based Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises team also found that marriage suited men as husbands only had half the chance of dying from heart disease as unmarried men.

Lead researcher Elaine Eaker said doctors should be looking for signs of marital stress to refer patients for counselling.

'We believe we have found characteristics of marriages that have an impact on people's health and longevity.

'While medical care providers are not specifically trained to intervene on psychosocial issues such as marital characteristics, they may be the most likely contact to observe or uncover these characteristics or emotions.'

A second study of 35,000 women by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta looked at the link between cardiovascular disease and work.

It found unemployed women looking for work reported the worst physical health, with nearly a third having high blood pressure and 6 per cent suffering a heart attack, stroke or chest pain.

At least one British doctor has disputed the research published in the AHA, saying it should be treated with a 'pinch of salt'.

'We need to remind ourselves that we self-select into certain groups. People who choose to get married have different characteristics from those who do not. So they may be more or less at risk of developing health problems.

'We cannot be sure that the research is comparing 'like with like', ' said Sir Alexander Macara, of the National Heart Forum.