Partner Bereavement Is Associated with Excess Risk for Myocardial Infarction and Stroke

Many clinicians know of cases in which a patient dies, and then the patient's spouse or partner dies shortly thereafter. Various studies have shown associations between bereavement and early mortality, particularly from cardiovascular (CV) disease, but researchers haven't assessed risk for adverse CV events following loss of a partner in large population studies. In this study from the U.K., investigators used a national primary care database to compare adverse CV event rates among 31,000 older adults (mean age, 76) whose partners died, with those among 84,000 age- and sex-matched controls whose partners were alive on the same day.

During the first 30 days after loss of a partner, 50 participants in the bereavement group (0.16%) versus 67 in…