Happily married men ’much less likely to suffer stroke’ than single or unhappily married friends

　　Happily married men are much less likely to suffer a stroke than their single or unhappily married friends, according to new research.
　　Single men and those in unsuccessful marriages were 64 per cent more likely to have a stroke than men in successful marriages.
　　Scientists say an unhappy marriage or being left on the shelf was as big a risk to your chances of having a stroke as having diabetes.
　　The findings even shocked scientists, who said they did not expect to see that a happy home life had such an impact on a man's health.
　　The study did not look at how at whether women's chance of stroke was reduced if they had a happy marriage, but researchers are keen to test out the theory on them too.
　　The study followed 10,059 civil servants and council workers who completed the Israeli Ischemic Heart Disease Study in 1963.
　　They followed the men through death records and other public registers to 1997 to check their cause of death.
　　In 1965, two years after the first study, the participants were asked to rate their marriages as successful or unsuccessful or if they never married at all.
　　Dr Uri Goldbourt, of Tel Aviv University, said the study was a sign of how important good relationships are to men.
　　"An analysis of the 3.6 percent of men who had reported dissatisfaction in their marriage found the adjusted risk of a fatal stroke was also 64 percent higher, compared with men who considered their marriages very successful," he said.
　　"I had not expected that unsuccessful marriage would be of this statistical importance."
　　Dr Goldbourt said the risk of stroke was just as high for single men as it was for those stuck in dead end marriages.
　　He said: "Considering age at death and adjusting for socioeconomic status, obesity, blood pressure, smoking habits and family size, as well as existing diabetes and heart disease at the time of the earlier survey, single men had a 64 percent higher risk of fatal stroke than did married men.
　　"That figure is comparable to the risk of fatal stroke faced by men with diabetes."
　　Dr Goldbourt said the new research had several limitations.
　　"There was a lack of data on nonfatal versus fatal strokes and on participants' medical treatment after the first five years of the initial study. Women also weren't included.
　　"While the effects of marital status and success may be similar in women there are still differences, and research on women is clearly needed."