Wives are more relaxed after husbands’ death

A surprising new study find among older woman widows suffer less stress and frailty than women whose husbands are still alive.

The findings are in contrast to previous research which showed marriage has a protective effect on health, lowering the risk of a heart attack, depression and increasing the chance of surviving from cancer.

The study by the University of Padova and the National Research Council’s Institute of Neuroscience in Italy found that while men suffer negative consequences when their wife dies – because they rely more heavily on their spouse – women appear to get healthier.

Lead researcher Caterina Trevisan said “Since women generally have a longer lifespan than men, married women may also suffer from the effects of caregiver burden, since they often devote themselves to caring for their husband in later life.”

Researchers analyzed data on 1, 887 men and women over the age of 65 who were randomly selected in northern Italy and studied for at least four years.

Widows were about 23 percent less likely to be frail than married women, according to the Journal of Women’s Health, which published the study.

Single women also were found to experience less anxiety than bachelors, greater job satisfaction and higher activity levels at work, and a lower risk of social isolation.

“Consistently with this picture, the higher educational level and better economic status seen among the single women in our study may well reflect a social condition that would promote a greater psychological and physical well-being, ” Trevisan said.

“Finally, widows cope better than widowers with the stress deriving from the loss of a partner and widowhood, with a significant increase in the risk of depression only in the latter, ” she said.