Bad Marriages Affect Women More Than Men

Posted on March 5, 2009 in Latest News

Bad marriages take a toll on men and women. However, a new study by the University of Utah shows that strained marriages affect women more than men. While men can have depressive symptoms from bad marriages, women can have depressive symptoms as well as health problems

The Study By University of Utah:
In this study, researchers studied about 276 couples married for an average of 20 years, between ages 40 and 70. Men and women were asked to fill questionnaires regarding their marriage. The positive aspects such as emotional warmth, support and negatives aspects such as arguments, disagreements were included in the questionnaires. The participants also had their blood pressure, waist circumference checked. The researchers found out that:

Why Bad Marriages Affect Women More Than Men?
According to the researcher Nancy Henry from the University of Utah, women tend to be more relationship oriented. This might be the reason bad marriages affect women emotionally as well as physically. The stress hormones which are released due to emotional strain can also add abdominal fat making women heavier. This can lead to problems such as obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure etc.

This study is important as heart disease is the major cause of death among women and men. This study shows that emotional distress in marriage makes women vulnerable to health risks, which can in turn result in heart disease

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