Why the study?
Does exposure to a partner's myocardial infarction increase mortality or disease incidence in male partners?
Does exposure to a partner's myocardial infarction increase mortality or disease incidence in male partners?
Male partners with low educational levels face a substantially increased risk of mortality following their female partner's myocardial infarction.
May warrant monitoring low-educated male partners after spousal MI; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective confirmation before practice change.
BACKGROUND: Many studies have been performed on the impact of Alzheimer's disease, stroke and cancer on carers. Information on the influence of a myocardial infarction in a patient on the health of the partner is still scarce. METHODS: Exposed and non-exposed partners were compared with respect to the occurrence of mortality and predefined diseases, using Cox proportional hazards survival analysis. RESULTS: None of the disease incidence rates differed between exposed partners and control partners. Over 12 times as many male partners of (female) heart patients died as compared to their male control partners, when they had a low educational level. CONCLUSION: When exposed to myocardial infarction in a patient, the risk of dying in low educated male partners was over 12 times as large as for male low educated unexposed partners.
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Skrotzki et al. (2005) studied this question.
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