Couples united ‘in sickness and in health’, shows study

A HUSBAND or wife having to go into hospital significantly increases the risk of the other partner dying, researchers said today.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers in the US studied 518,240 couples, aged between 65 and 98, to gauge the effect of a life-partner’s hospitalisation or death on the remaining spouse.

They found that the illness or death of a partner could significantly harm the well-being of their husband or wife and play a major part in increasing their own chance of dying.