NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Women who force themselves to
stay quiet during marital arguments appear to have a higher
risk of death, a new study shows. Depression and irritable
bowel syndrome are also more common in these women.

Such “self-silencing” during conflict may have provided an
evolutionary survival advantage long ago, and unfortunately may
be a necessity for women in abusive relationships, Dr. Elaine
D. Eaker of Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises in Gaithersburg,
Maryland, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.

Eaker and her colleagues found that, over a 10-year period,
the most striking finding was that women who self-silenced were
four times more likely to die than women who expressed
themselves freely during marital arguments.

The current study is the first, Eaker says, to look at
behavior, heart disease and mortality in the context of marital
relationships. While many studies have looked into marital
status and quality and heart disease, she added, “We had some
other questions that I think get more at the dynamics of how
people really feel in a marriage, what actually happens in a
marriage.”

Eaker and her team looked at 3,682 men and women
participating in the Framingham Offspring Study, most of whom
were in their 40s and 50s at the beginning of the study. Study
participants were followed for 10 years for the development of
heart disease and for death from any cause.

The study confirmed that marriage is good for men's health
- compared with unmarried men, husbands were nearly half as
likely to die during the follow-up period.

The researchers also found that men whose wives came home
from work upset about their jobs were 2.7 times as likely to
develop heart disease as men with less man health journal wives.

It's possible, Eaker and her team suggest, that a wife's
problems on the job could be upsetting to a husband because he
is unable to “protect” her in this arena.

“Attention has been focused on the changing roles of
women,” they note in the July/August issue of Health man s health

Medicine, “the changing roles and expectations of husbands/men
also need to be scrutinized and understood.”

The findings underscore the importance of healthy
communication within marriage, Eaker says, although she does
urge that other researchers confirm the results “before we make
a lot out of them.”

Handbook health issue reproductive sexual womens, she concludes, “both spouses really need to
allow another person a safe environment to express feelings
when they're in conflict,” both for their own health, and for
the health of the relationship.

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine, July/August 2007.