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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research article

Marital status and ischemic heart disease incidence and mortality in women: a large prospective study

Authors: Sarah Floud, Angela Balkwill, Dexter Canoy, F Lucy Wright, Gillian K Reeves, Jane Green, Valerie Beral, Benjamin J Cairns, the Million Women Study Collaborators

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

Being married has been associated with a lower mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) in men, but there is less evidence of an association for women, and it is unclear whether the associations with being married are similar for incident and for fatal IHD. We examined the relation between marital status and IHD incidence and mortality in the Million Women Study.

Methods

A total of 734,626 women (mean age 60 years) without previous heart disease, stroke or cancer, were followed prospectively for hospital admissions and deaths. Adjusted relative risks (RRs) for IHD were calculated using Cox regression in women who were married or living with a partner versus women who were not. The role of 14 socio-economic, lifestyle and other potential confounding factors was investigated.

Results

81% of women reported being married or living with a partner and they were less likely to live in deprived areas, to smoke or be physically inactive, but had a higher alcohol intake than women who were not married or living with a partner. During 8.8 years of follow-up, 30,747 women had a first IHD event (hospital admission or death) and 2,148 died from IHD. Women who were married or living with a partner had a similar risk of a first IHD event as women who were not (RR = 0.99, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.96 to 1.02), but a significantly lower risk of IHD mortality (RR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.80, P <0.0001). This lower risk of IHD death was evident both in women with and without a prior IHD hospital admission (respectively: RR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.85, P <0.0001, n = 683; and 0.70, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.78, P <0.0001, n = 1,465). These findings did not vary appreciably between women of different socio-economic groups or by lifestyle and other factors.

Conclusions

After adjustment for socioeconomic, lifestyle and other factors, women who were married or living with a partner had a similar risk of developing IHD but a substantially lower IHD mortality compared to women who were not married or living with a partner.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Marital status and ischemic heart disease incidence and mortality in women: a large prospective study
Authors
Sarah Floud
Angela Balkwill
Dexter Canoy
F Lucy Wright
Gillian K Reeves
Jane Green
Valerie Beral
Benjamin J Cairns
the Million Women Study Collaborators
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-12-42

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