健康英语新闻:Marriage lengthens lives of cardiac bypass patients: study

BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Married patients are more likely than single ones to survive 15 years after heart surgery, according to a study online in the Health Psychology.

Researchers of the study tracked 225 people who underwent coronary bypass surgery from 1987 to 1990. They found that 124 patients of them, or about 55 percent, survived for at least the next 15 years. And 61 percent of the married patients and 30 percent of the unmarried survived.

Kathleen King, lead author of study, said that the close connection to another person in a marriage lengthened patients’ lives.

"Marriage gives you purpose in life, and feeling like you have a reason to live is an important part of doing the things you need to do to stay alive," Harry T. Reis, co-author of the study, said. "Married people also help each other; remind each other it's time to take their pills. And they probably eat healthier."

However, the marriage quality had different effects on the survival odds between men and women. Men who had bypass surgery lived longer by virtue of simply being married, regardless of how happy or miserable the union, but the marriage quality had more impact on women's survival after surgery.

83 percent of the happily married women had survived, compared with 28 percent of the less happily married women and 27 percent of the single women.

Among the men, 83 percent of the happily married were still alive, compared with 60 percent of the less happily married and 36 percent of the single.

"The most dramatic thing to me is [that] just being married, especially if you had a happy marriage, had that big an effect 15 years later," King told ABCNews.com.

Marriage does not only have a positive effect on the survival of patients after heart surgery, but also benefits patients with other diseases.

In recent years, a number of studies have showed several apparent health benefits of marriage. For instance, it might slightly add the odds of survival from colon cancer and help reduce pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients.