Married Cancer Patients Have Better Outcomes

Married Cancer Patients Have Better Outcomes


People need people and sick people do better when they are with someone who loves and needs them. Being married is associated with better cancer outcomes. In fact, for some cancers, the survival benefit associated with marriage is larger than the published survival benefit of chemotherapy, report the authors of a study that looked at the medical records of more than 700,000 cancer patients.

After adjustment for demographic characteristics, tumor and nodal stage, and the use of definitive therapy, married patients were significantly less likely to die from cancer than patients who had never married or were separated, divorced, or widowed (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.80; P < .001). This association remained significant for all of the cancer types evaluated in the study (P < .05).

Not only was being married associated with better cancer outcomes, married patients also tended to have their cancers diagnosed at an earlier stage.

“Our data suggest that marriage can have a significant health impact for patients with cancer. This was consistent for every cancer that we reviewed,” said first author Ayal Aizer, MD, MHS, chief resident of the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, in Boston, in a statement. “We suspect that social support from spouses is what’s driving the striking improvement in survival. Spouses often accompany patients on their visits and make sure they understand the recommendations and complete all their treatments.”

In a study published online September 3 in the American Heart Journal, married patients fared better than single patients after coronary angioplasty. Even after adjustment for confounders, such as smoking, family history, and high cholesterol, unmarried patients were almost twice as likely to die or experience a major cardiovascular event in the year after the procedure than married patients (13.3% vs 8.2%; P < .001).

Power of Human Attachment

Our humanity is relational at its essence. drawn in connection with one another to share what is most meaningful and fulfilling in lifeMedicine needs to follow with a parallel paradigm; healing needs to be both person- and family-centered.

This is  the power of human attachment in showing the contribution of marital status to survival.

Source 

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