According to a recent study published in Archives of Internal Medicine, people living alone, who have arterial vascular disease, have a greater chance of dying from cardiovascular health problems than those living with other people.
The study claims that around
The researchers highlight that living alone may result in the following factors:
l The person may not have adequate access to health care treatment.
l The person may neglect their health and their behavior towards their health may not be as diligent as if they had someone looking after them.
l The person may become stressed, due to neurohormal-mediated emotions, which, according to the authors, may lead to cardiovascular risk.
Lead author of the study Jacob A Udell, M.D., M.P.H., from Brigham and Women's Hospital,
The authors analyzed information from the global Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health Registry (REACH).
The data showed that of the 44,573 REACH volunteers, 8,594 were living alone.
The authors concluded that there was a 14.1% higher risk of mortality when the volunteers lived alone, compared with 11.1% for those living with others.
Cardiovascular death risk in the volunteers was 8.6% for people living solo, and 6.8% for those not living alone.
When the researchers took age into account, they determined that people living alone who were between the ages of 45 to 65 had a 7.7% increased risk of death, compared with 5.7% for those in the same age group who were not living alone.
Volunteers who were between the ages of 66 to 80 and were living alone had a 13.2% greater risk of death, compared an increase of 12.3% in people the same age.
Higher death risk did not apply to those over 80 years of age
The authors note that the participants over the age of 80 who were living alone had no higher risk of death than those over 80 living with someone else.
The researchers conclude:
"In conclusion, living alone was independently associated with an increased risk of mortality and CV death in an international cohort of stable middle-aged outpatients with or at risk of atherothrombosis.
Younger individuals who live alone may have a less favorable course than all but the most elderly individuals following development of CV disease, and this observation warrants confirmation in further studies."
Article reference：Living Alone and Cardiovascular Risk in Outpatients at Risk of or With Atherothrombosis"
Jacob A. Udell, MD, MPH; Philippe Gabriel Steg, MD; Benjamin M. Scirica, MD, MPH; Sidney C. Smith, MD; E. Magnus Ohman, MD; Kim A. Eagle, MD; Shinya Goto, MD; Jang Ik Cho, MS; Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH
Archives of Internal Medicine, June 2