London - It is a phenomenon that has long been suspected – and now scientists say it really is possible to die of a broken heart.
A study has found that when a husband or wife dies, the remaining spouse’s risk of dying is 66 percent higher in the three months after their partner’s death.
And the effect may be stronger in younger people, say the Harvard researchers.
For the study, they analysed more than 26 000 Americans over the age of 50.
They focused on 12 316 of the participants who were married in 1998 and followed them through to 2008 to determine which of them became widows or widowers, then recorded when they died.
There were 2 912 deaths during the study period.
Of these, 2 373 were among married couples who left a widow or widower. The other 539 deaths were among people who had themselves been widowed.
On average, widows and widowers were more likely to die than people whose spouses were alive.
The effect was strongest during the first three months after a spouse’s death, when the widow or widower had a 66 percent increased chance of dying. Fifty of the 539 people died within three months of losing their spouse, 26 between three and six months later and 44 between six and 12 months later.
Earlier research showed that men were at greater risk of dying soon after a spouse than women, but the authors of the new study didn’t find a difference.
They said this could be because they took into account participants’ income and wealth, which might have influenced past findings.
They added that they weren’t clear about what caused the widowhood effect.
“It’s possible it’s a grief-related mechanism, or that providing care for the sick spouse causes illness in the surviving spouse,” said lead researcher Dr SV Subramanian.
“Or, as one’s spouse gets sicker, the surviving spouse stops taking care of their own health,” he suggested.
Last year, Briton Marcus Ringrose, the grieving husband of Doctor Who actress Mary Tamm, died the day after her funeral.
Tamm had died of cancer two weeks earlier and he had given a “stunning” 20-minute eulogy at her funeral. But by the next morning, he was dead – of a broken heart. An inquest heard that Ringrose, 59, who was fit, had died of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, a cardiac condition which can be triggered by emotional stress.
In the US, a Minnesota couple who were “hopelessly in love” for all 65 years of their marriage, died within hours of each other, it was reported earlier this year.
Clifford and Eva Vevea spent their last few days together holding hands at the care home where they were staying.
Nurses at the home pushed their beds together so they could be together and Clifford, aged 93, and Eva, aged 90, passed away exactly the same way on the same day.
Funeral director, Jim Bredman, referred to the close death of spouses as “the anniversary syndrome”, but said in most cases it occurred within a year or so.
Some experts say the change of lifestyle may be to blame.
“Maybe they used to go for a walk every night, but now they’re not doing that any more. Maybe they’re not sleeping well, or maybe not taking their medications,” said Dr Ken Doka, a gerontologist at The College of New Rochelle in New York.
“Also, grief is extraordinarily stressful and when you’re older and frailer it’s harder to cope with stress.”
Doka added that widowers might feel especially lonely because they didn’t know they needed to be proactive about finding company.
“One of the problems widowers often have is the lack of support and one of the reasons is that very often the wife, historically, is the keeper of the kids.
“She’s the one who called the kids up and said they should come over for dinner, so it’s not unusual that widowers will often say no one ever stops over any more.
“They didn’t realise someone else was calling and inviting them.”
Because the study looked only at people over the age of 50, it isn’t clear whether younger people would face the same risks after a spouse’s death.
But Subramanian said some evidence suggested the widowhood effect was stronger among younger people. - Daily Mail