Marriage is good for the heart - study

FRANCE: Married people are less prone to heart attacks than singletons and more likely to recover if stricken, according to a Finnish study published Thursday.

Researchers collected data on 15,330 people in Finland between the ages of 35 and 99 who suffered "acute coronary events" between 1993 and 2002.

Just over half of the patients died within 28 days of the attacks. The team found that unmarried men in all age groups were 58-66 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack than married ones.

For women the nuptial benefit was even greater -- single women were 60 to 65 percent more likely to suffer acute coronary events, the Finnish researchers wrote in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

AFP