NEW YORK — A happy marriage is good for your blood pressure, but a stressed one can be worse than being single, a preliminary study suggests.
That second finding is a surprise because prior studies have shown that married people tend to be healthier than singles, said researcher Julianne Holt-Lunstad.
It would take further study to sort out what the results mean for long-term health, said Holt-Lunstad, an assistant psychology professor at Brigham Young University. Her study was reported online Thursday by the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
The study involved 204 married people and 99 single adults. Most were white, and it’s not clear whether the same results would apply to other ethnic groups, Holt-Lunstad said.
Study volunteers wore devices that recorded their blood pressure at random times.
Analysis found that the more marital satisfaction and adjustment spouses reported, the lower their average blood pressure was over the 24 hours of testing.
But spouses who scored low in marital satisfaction had higher average blood pressure than did single people.
It makes sense that marital quality is more important than just being married when it comes to affecting blood pressure, said Dr. Brian Baker, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
