Abstract 14359: Impact of Marital Stress on 12-month Health Outcomes Among Young Adults With Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Background: Psychosocial stress is associated with worse cardiac outcomes, but little is known about the prognostic impact of marital stress in young adults (≤55 years) with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We investigated the association between marital stress and 1-year health outcomes in young AMI survivors. Methods: We used data from the VIRGO study (Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young AMI Patients), which enrolled people aged 18-55 years with AMI (2008-2012). Marital stress was assessed among married/partnered participants at 1 month post-AMI using the Stockholm Marital Stress Scale, categorized as absent/mild, moderate, and severe. Main outcomes were physical/mental health status, generic/disease-specific quality of life, angina, depressive symptoms, and all-cause readmission at 1 year post-AMI. Linear and logistic regression models were sequentially adjusted for baseline health status, demographics, and socioeconomic factors (including education level, income level, employment status, and insurance status). Results: Among the 1593 married/partnered participants in our study, more women reported severe marital stress than men (39.4% vs 30.4%, p=0.001). Having severe marital stress was associated with worse physical and mental health, lower generic and cardiovascular-specific quality of life, more angina and depressive symptoms, and 1.48 times higher all-cause readmission at 1 year post-AMI. These associations remained significant after adjusting for baseline health score and patient demographics ( Table Model 1 ), but they attenuated and became non-significant when further adjusting for socioeconomic factors ( Model 2 ). Conclusion: Marital stress was associated with worse health outcomes in young AMI patients, which can be partially mediated by socioeconomic factors. Further research is needed to understand this complex relationship and potential causal pathway associated with these findings.