Mending Broken Hearts

Abstract

Marriage has long been linked to lower risk for adult mortality in population and clinical studies. In a regional sample of patients (n = 569) undergoing cardiac surgery, we compared 5-year hazards of mortality for married persons with those of widowed, separated or divorced, and never married persons using data from medical records and psychosocial interviews. After adjusting for demographics and pre- and postsurgical health, unmarried persons had 1.90 times the hazard of mortality of married persons; the disaggregated widowed, never married, and divorced or separated groups had similar hazards, as did men and women. The adjusted hazard for immediate postsurgical mortality was 3.33; the adjusted hazard for long-term mortality was 1.71, and this was mediated by married persons' lower smoking rates. The findings underscore the role of spouses (both male and female) in caregiving during health crises and the social control of health behaviors.

Marital Status and Postoperative Functional Recovery

“…These findings extend prior work suggesting postoperative survival advantages for married people 1,2 and may relate to the role of social supports in influencing patients’ choices of hospitals 3 and their self-care. 4 Our study is limited by the possibility that the married and unmarried participants may have differed in ways that were not observable in the study data.…”

“…Chances of survival after major surgery may be better among married vs unmarried persons, 1,2 but little is known regarding the association between marital status and postoperative function. Characterizing the association between marital status and postoperative function may be useful for counseling patients and identifying at-risk groups that may benefit from targeted interventions aimed at improving functional recovery.…”

Social network activation: The role of health discussion partners in recovery from mental illness

“…We also find that people are especially inclined to rely on partners and mothers (but not fathers) to discuss health relative to other types of ties. The role of gender ideology and the culture of motherhood in maintaining a safety net for adult children with health problems has been observed in previous research (Cook, 1988), as has the importance of the institution of marriage in structuring support obligations of spouses (Idler, Boulifard, & Contrada, 2012; Schafer, 2013; Umberson, 1992). Perhaps more unexpectedly, however, individuals experiencing a mental illness are no more likely to talk about their health problems to medical or mental health professionals than to siblings, friends, fathers, and neighbors, illustrating the critical role of the lay support system in managing mental illness (Swindle, Heller, & Pescosolido, 2000).…”

The Study of Psychological Aspects of Iranian Mothers’ Lullabies

“…Moreover, the findings of the new experimental studies prove the fact that music training fosters self-control and verbal intelligence in children (Moreno et al, 2011). Also, whishing children marriage murmured as lullabies by mothers, the results of research (Uecker, 2012;Idler et al, 2012;Warner & Kelley, 2012) and many other researches show the importance and role of marriage in people's social growth and fulfilling and improving psycho-hygienic and proves Iranian mothers' logical and philosophical points of view in rearing healthy children.…”