A Bad Marriage Can Damage a Woman’s Heart, Says Study

Women in bad marriages are more likely than men to develop “metabolic syndrome,” says a new study. This study, says the author, is the first to link depression to metabolic syndrome.

“Metabolic syndrome” is a cluster of symptoms that can include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar. These three, alone or in combination, have been proven to cause heart disease. Women in unhappy marriages, the study indicates, have a higher risk of sustaining cardiovascular damage brought on from metabolic syndrome than do their male counterparts. To come to this conclusion, Nancy Henry, doctoral candidate in Psychology at the University of Utah, surveyed 276 couples about both the negative and the positive aspects of their marriages. The questions delved into the amounts, and types, of agreements and disagreements in their marriages. The questions also asked about depressive episodes and feelings. These were not couples in extremely bad marriages, Henry said. Most were in normal marriages having normal marital problems. But the findings were far from normal. When Henry compared these answers with those who, in the survey, had metabolic syndrome, (20 percent of the men and 12 percent of the women) she found, according the U.S. News & World Report:

The men were as likely as the women to become depressed with marital strain, but the link between negativity, depression and metabolic syndrome only applied to women, she said. The depression in women accounted for the metabolic syndrome, she said.

Although these findings are compelling, other studies have found that the strain of unhappy marriages negatively affects the health of both men and women. Henry admits that more research is needed, but she is encouraged by the results of her study. Henry plans to present her findings at the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago.