Living alone doubles risk of heart disease: study

LONDON (Reuters) – People who live alone are twice as
likely to suffer serious heart disease as those who live with a
partner, according to research published on Thursday.

Doctors found the risk was even higher among older people,
after conducting a study of 138,000 people aged between 30 and
69 in the Danish city of Aarhus.

The reasons for the increased risk were unclear, said
Kirsten Nielsen, of Aarhus Sygehus University Hospital, who
reported the findings in the Journal of Epidemiology and
Community Health.

But she said it was likely to be linked to factors
associated with single living, such as smoking, obesity, high
cholesterol levels, less frequent visits to family doctors and
the lack of a family support network.

“Age is of course a risk factor, and when you combine that
with living alone you have a group in the population at a very
high risk,” Nielsen said.

Men aged over 50 living alone made up only 7.7 percent of
the study group, and women living alone aged over 60 just 5.4
percent.

But lone men in this age group accounted for two-thirds of
the male patients who died within a month of being diagnosed
with angina or heart attack between 2000 and 2002, while the
lone women in the age group made up a third of deaths.

The lowest incidence of serious heart disease was found
among those living with a partner, who had enjoyed a high
standard of education and were in work.

Nielsen said the study should enable health authorities to
easily identify a sector of the population who could be
screened for heart disease risk.

“I don’t think you can make people find somebody to live
with, but you can examine them more intensively,” she said.

She said older single people could be given treatment for
levels of cholesterol or hypertension which would not normally
trigger treatment among the wider population.