Married individuals who have never been divorced or widowed are more likely to survive a stroke, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
For the study, researchers analyzed data collected on older adults as a part of the Health and Retirement Study conducted by the National Institute on Aging and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Researchers focused on 2,351 adults aged 41 and older who reported a stroke from 1992 to 2010.
Analysis revealed the likelihood for dying after a stroke was 71 percent greater for adults who never married than for adults who were married and had not experienced a marital dissolution.
"Our research is the first to show that current and past marital experiences can have significant consequences for one's prognosis after a stroke," said Matthew Dupre, PhD, lead author and associate professor with the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C. "We hope that a greater recognition and understanding of these associations may enable healthcare providers to better identify and treat patients who may be at a potentially high risk of dying after suffering a stroke."
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