Older couples in a bad marriage -- particularly female spouses -- have a higher risk for heart disease than those in a good marriage, finds the first nationally representative study of its kind.The findings suggest the need for marriage counseling  and programs aimed at promoting marital quality and well-being for couples into their 70s and 80s, said lead investigator Hui Liu, a Michigan State University sociologist. "Marriage counseling is focused largely on younger couples," said Liu.  "But these results show that marital quality is just as important at older ages, even when the couple has been married 40 0r 50 years. " The study, funded by the National Institute of Aging, an arm of the National Institutes of Health,is published online in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Liu analyzed five years of data from about 1,200 married men and women who participated the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project.  Respondents were aged 57-85 at the beginning of the study. The project included survey questions about marital quality, lab tests and self-reported measures of cardiovascular health such as heart attacks, strokes, hypertension and high levels of C-reactive protein in the blood. Liu set out to learn how marital quality is related to risk of heart disease over time, and whether this relationship varies by gender and/or age. Among her findings: Negative martial quality(eg.spouse criticizes, spouse is demanding) has a bigger effect on heart health than positive marital quality.In other words, a bad marriage is more harmful to your heart health than a good marriage.The effect of marital quality on cardiovascular risk becomes much stronger at older ages.Meanwhile,marital quality has a bigger effect on women's heart health than it does on men's, possibly because women tend to internalize  negative feelings and thus are more likely to feel depressed and develop cardiovascular problems. Heart disease leads to a decline in marital quality for women, but not for men.  It's common that wives are more likely to provide support and care to sick husbands, while husbands are less likely to take care of sick wives."In this way, a wife's poor health may affect how she assesses her marital quality, but a husband's poor health doesn't hurt his view of marriage,"Liu said. Why does marital quality have a bigger effect on women?
Because women are weak physically. Because women have to take care of their sick husband. Because women tend to keep their negative feelings to themselves. Because women expect too much oftheir marriage.