--- title: Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows description: A new study found that married patients recovered better after heart surgery than single or divorced patients. canonical: https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-29T15:06:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:11:30.024Z article:section: Health og:title: Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows og:description: They had better outcomes than single or divorced patients og:url: https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5590bc2953766075/69886eaa5f570f4b45b1e13d/marriage-heart-surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Heart surgery-marriage og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows twitter:description: They had better outcomes than single or divorced patients twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5590bc2953766075/69886eaa5f570f4b45b1e13d/marriage-heart-surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 3:06 PM UTC  Husband comforting wife in hospital bed Husband comforting wife in hospital bedGetty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 29, 2015 3:06 PM UTC It turns out that marriage may actually mend broken hearts. [A new study](http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2466601) published in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_ found that married patients recovered better after heart surgery than single or divorced patients. After studying 1,576 adults over age 50 who had serious cardiac surgery, the researchers found that unmarried patients had a 40% greater chance of dying or developing complications two years after the surgery. This fits into a series of studies that show marriage can be beneficial to your health. But as [TIME’s Belinda Luscombe reports](http://time.com/4075847/better-marriage-health/), in many cases only those in happy marriages get the full benefit. **Read Next:** [_A Better Marriage Is Better for Your Health_](http://time.com/4075847/better-marriage-health/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/"},"headline":"Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows","datePublished":"2015-10-29T15:06:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:11:30.024Z","description":"They had better outcomes than single or divorced patients","url":"https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/","keywords":["Research","medicine","Marriage","relationships","Surgery"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5590bc2953766075/69886eaa5f570f4b45b1e13d/marriage-heart-surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5590bc2953766075/69886eaa5f570f4b45b1e13d/marriage-heart-surgery.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heart surgery-marriage","caption":"Heart surgery-marriage","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4092575/married-people-heart-surgery/","name":"Married People Heal Better After Heart Surgery, Study Shows"}}]}] ```